I know there are several people in this forum using the ALPS printers for decals and I bought an MD-5000 online several months ago and I'm now getting around to actually printing something. I'm on Mac using Illustrator (vector drawing program). I did a couple tests of a logo I reproduced and printed out. A sample is below. I seem to be having a problem with jagged edges and I need someone that is familiar with these printers to tell me if this is normal, particularly at the very small sizes we print thing at in n-scale? If not I'm looking for suggestions on what I might be doing wrong. I'm printing this as a spot color working from vector artwork in Illustrator. Thanks in advance for any help! -jamie
Jamie, It should print better than that. I use a PC, so I have no idea what to suggest, but from the looks of it, you can see the pixels on your "O"s which indicates your resolution (d.p.i) is not set high enough. This can be either in your drawing program, your print re-sizing, or in your printer driver settings, but with a Mac I'm at a loss. Hopefully someone with Mac experience will chime in, but I would suggest one of the Alps yahoo groups: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/alpsdecal http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Alps
Jamie, did you draw the BHP logo or did you use the pattern you've got from the internet as a .gif or .jpg file ? it looks as your drawing is not only 2 colors, black and white. it looks as your drawing has a lot of very light gray colors around the edges of the logo which in spot color mode will be printed as black. (or later on the decals as white)
I believe the problem is the size of your graphic. I use MSPublisher for all my decals. If I dump the graphic into Publisher, the graphic will be way too big and I have to resize it down to the right size. Publisher resized it without jagged edges and the Alps prints it out nicely. If the letters and symbols are one color, there is even a better way. I would actualy use my font making software and change them to a font. Kinda what Ben Coifman did with the heralds. This gives even a better edge.
Thanks for the quick replies and ideas. I did post it up on the yahoo message board as well to see what else people suggest. I did create this from scratch as a vector graphic, so there shouldn't be any bitmap issues. I'm wondering two things: 1. Resolution - normally this isn't an issue with Illustrator though since it is all Vector based, so... 2. Print driver isn't working properly or isn't correct. My original thought is that this looks like the output you get when you used to send postscript artwork to a printer that didn't support Postscript. Thanks! -jamie
I have great results with my MD1000 making fine Z Scale decals. I draw the artwork in Corel Draw vector mode: All the art is black, and gets printed in "Spot Mode" for solid colors, one layer at a time until the decal is complete, then I brush on a layer of Microscale Liquid Decal Film: I have to remember to check the checkbox "overlay" after each layer, so the paper is drawn back into the printer to print the next layers. Sounds like you are doing the same thing as me. Are you using an econo-black ribbon? Do you convert all your art to curves? Does your artwork look jaggy on the screen as well as on the decals? In spot mode, all printing is done at 600DPI, regardless which model Alps you use, so it has to be something happening to your artwork. You are not saving it as any kind of bit mapped format before printing? Print Driver, maybe something wrong there? A default print driver? There are Alpsdecal2 and alpsdecal3 yahoo groups, and one of those 2 has MAC drivers that are working well for other people. Might be worth looking into.
I don't use vector graphic but the good old gif/bmp and the file below should get you a nice print out on the Alps. I don't know your paint program but mine does not let me re-size it by dragging the picture frame. This is important that you re-size the image only with a picture frame if available under wise you will get jagged edges. http://usloki.tripod.com/images/decal/bphlogonew.gif
I use bitmaps only as a base to retrace new artwork for vector graphics. Bitmaps don't give me good results, at least not the ones I've tried so far on my ALPS. Charlie Vlk Railroad Model Resources/ Mask Island Decals
The MD5000 prints 1200 dpi doesn't it? So you could try cranking up your image to that. I've always had not-so-great luck when not using images converted to curves. Ultimately what I ended up doing is converting my logos and digits/fonts to Windows fonts(ttf ). That way they're perfectly scalable. Then I use Corel to put them onto layers to print the white backgrounds, multi colors, etc.. I can even just use wordpad, or some other text editor to print if I like. Here's a sample of some fonts.. I'm using the MD1000 and I can print fonts crisp enough that you can read boxcar details, in N scale. Tim
Hate to hijack, but anyone of you outstanding citizens be willing to make a few decals for a n scaler or two. Looking for a custom set of decals to do up a Rio Grande Ski Train. If willing to help please contact me and thanks Oh also BMP and GIFFs do not make good graphics for what you are doing. In thier very nature they are low dpi to keep their size small. John
John, I'm still strugling to find the right fonts... I convert all my drawings to .tiff for decals and the Alps MD-5000 does only print 600dpi in spot color mode...
Ok I finally figured out the problem... On the Mac the Postscript function doesn't work without a piece of RIP software that isn't made anymore, so printing from Illustrator in OS X is out. I thought it looked familiar when I saw the jaggies. I imported the Illustrator artwork into Photoshop at 600dpi and printed it out from there. First thing I did was use the Metallic Silver and black to create a shield decal for the front of the new UP Athearn Challenger and it turned out pretty well given how tiny it is: Next I'm off to finish a bunch of other stuff I had on the back, back burner... Thanks for the help and suggestions! Now I'll wait for all the people looking for the UP shield decal to stalk me...
Is the font they use on the Ski Train web site no close enough? http://www.skitrain.com/ I think stretched it should be a good start.
I did find the page where you can download nice tiff images of the Ski Train and its' logo http://www.skitrain.com/media.html Will this help?? Thanks Engine Shop. The first time looking there I did not see them. With the reminder I decided to look more in depth.
What does the Engine font look like? I couldn't get a clear view on the website. I've got the start of a DRG font.. but I need to finish up more letters, if anyone's interested. Tim
I did a little research and it appears the the Ski Train uses the BIRCH font. Download that and it should give us what we need
