White decals for pedals?

[twin1965]

I've tried this and it doesn't look good. The colours on the screen and the colours that come out on the printer are not always the same. You also have to know exactly what colour your enclosure is and try to match this otherwise you're decal will look a slightly different colour.

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[twin1965]

Is your supplier Crafty Computer Paper? The last batch I got from them was crap.

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Utterly gutted on that. So I'm going back to Crafty for clear. I'm really hoping they've not gone to shit as well otherwise I'm

The clear I got from them last wasn't any good either. Its the first time I've had a decal stretch on me.
It just didn't come off the backing paper easily.

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[davent]

Where do you guys buy envirotex. Seems hard to get in Europe (at least in Austria).

You could print your black/coloured lettering onto white decal film then trim the decal to leave a thin white outline around your lettering. In the past i've cut a mask slightly larger then my lettering, used the mask to paint a white cloud on the enclosure then apply the clear decal over the cloud.

I don't really get what you mean by "clouds". Could you please go into detail a little bit? I get the idea from your picture - having black letters with light borders - but wouldn't you have to cut along the edges of the letters perfectly to get even line thickness and such stuff? (using white decal that is)
I guess another possibility is to use white decal, paint everything black except for the letters and apply that. Does anyone know how that turns out? I'm rather sceptical.

"White clouds" was just refering to the white painted areas that i placed the black lettered decals over. Tried to fade the white to the edges giving it a soft edge but in such a small area and with a small skillset on my part, didn't succeed.

To cut around the lettering for the white backed decal would present a challenge, good quality, fine scissors and/or brand new blade in your scalpel and a big load of patience you should get results that look perfect at a body's length viewing distance.

Regarding colouring decals to match enclosure colour, some info here. Might try a full face transparent decal- clear letters surrounded by the colour to match or contrast the enclosure's with the area of the enclosure to be covered by the decal, painted white. How opaque can you get the coloured portion of the decal?

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=88271.0

[m-Kresol]

Thanks davent! It looks great but it isn't quite what I was looking for. I have a black enclosure and just wanted the letters to be white, not black letters on a white ground.

You can use a transparent waterslide decal! You can use a white pen to paint underneath the decal! Print as usual and add on the top of the white painted part! It works fine!

I guess you'll have the same problem as with my first idea to just use white decal and paint everything black except for the letters, namely to adjust the colour to your enclosure so the difference won't be noticed.

[davent]

^ Your welcome!

Is there a way to print white text or designs for decals Or is there a special paint process you have to do?

Has it been suggested to etch the enclosure,  colour paint the enclosure then paint the etched parts with white paint?

dave

[das234]

Thanks davent! It looks great but it isn't quite what I was looking for. I have a black enclosure and just wanted the letters to be white, not black letters on a white ground.

You can use a transparent waterslide decal! You can use a white pen to paint underneath the decal! Print as usual and add on the top of the white painted part! It works fine!

I guess you'll have the same problem as with my first idea to just use white decal and paint everything black except for the letters, namely to adjust the colour to your enclosure so the difference won't be noticed.

My Happy Little Tree was done like Davent is saying.  I made the enclosure black, then I printed my decal design on regular paper and used an Exacto knife to cut out the parts I wanted white.  Then I used the plain paper as a stencil to apply white under the parts I wanted to be white (lettering and such).  This can be done with spray cans or paint pen, whatever you like.  Let the white paint dry, print the decal on clear stock (the decal design is mostly black with clear letters and the Bob Ross picture), and apply the decal.  The white shows through the clear spots on the decal and the rest looks black.  Admittedly, black is a little easier to do than color matching.  For example, my Le Grand Alibi pedal was supposed to be color matched but I messed up the process and the top came out darker than the rest.  Still looks really nice to me.

[Fastocker]

Only three plausible ways to print white onto a dark background:

• Screen printing
• Print a waterslide decal using an Alps printer
• DecalPro system by PulsarPro

I used the DecalPro system to do the graphics in this thread . . . http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=6324.0 . . .  and here's white printed on black using the DecalPro stuff:



Unfortunately, none of those options are cheap or easy.  But if you want to print white (or light colored) opaque colors onto a dark background, I'm not aware of any other way for a DIY'er to do it economically at home.  Again, I'm talking about lettering directly onto the painted or powdercoated enclosure without having to colormatch a decal's background color or having to carefully cut out individual letters and such.

If someone finds another method of doing this then I'd love to hear to hear about it.  The DecalPro system gives professional results but there is a learning curve involved and it can be very frustrating at times.  Plus you'll need a laminator and a laser printer.

Here's another I did recently using the DecalPro stuff:

[davent]

The Little Tree decal came out really nice!

With the difficulty of matching decal colour to enclosure colour how 'bout going in the other direction and accentuate the difference with a contrasting colour, it then becomes a design statement instead of a question of... 'was this meant to match or is this the way it's suppose to be?'

dave

[alanp]

I've sometimes thought about getting some three-ply black-white-black pickguard material, and dremeling away the top layer only, to get some white on black. It'd be fiddly as hell, though.

[jkokura]

Only three plausible ways to print white onto a dark background:

• Screen printing
• Print a waterslide decal using an Alps printer
• DecalPro system by PulsarPro

There are other methods, including ones I and others have indicated above.

Jacob

[Gledison]

What about adding a transparent decal, then painting the white parts with a white pen over the decal parts u want white. After that, adding a second decal, exactly the same on the top of the first one?

[davent]

That worked really well, looks great!

dave