# Making water slide decal art work



## MaxDB54 (Jul 28, 2020)

I am wondering how anyone here that uses water slide decals for their pedals sized their art work? 

Trial and error or is there a template available to download or share?

Any help appreciated!

Thx!


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## Many__Of__Horror (Jul 28, 2020)

I am terrible at design software & do mine on a template in Powerpoint that I made through trial & error. Printing out on paper, cutting and lining up is always recommended if you want to get it perfect. I know a lot of the guys use the drill template sheet from the pedal document as a help when designing.


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## dlazzarini (Jul 28, 2020)

MaxDB54 said:


> I am wondering how anyone here that uses water slide decals for their pedals sized their art work?
> 
> Trial and error or is there a template available to download or share?
> 
> ...


I am no expert yet but I’ve got a lot better over the year. What I do is use the drill template as one of my layers in photoshop or gimp. I import it from my scanner as the first layer. Double check that the dimensions match the actual size dimensions of the template. Then I build off of that first layer. Finally I turn that layer off or delete it when I go to print.


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## MaxDB54 (Jul 28, 2020)

Awesome...Thx!


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## Barry (Jul 28, 2020)

I'm in the make it up as I go camp, design software is new territory for me


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## Gordo (Jul 28, 2020)

I'll quote myself here:

I've recently converted to Affinity Photo for my graphics software and it's killer. A bit of a learning curve if you're not used to working with layers but it's ability to pull in individual sheets from a PDF is a cool trick. So if the box layout is, say, page 6 of the build doc: open the PDF in Affinity, specify Page 6, import at 300dpi to keep the edges sharp, and then save it as the Affinity file format. Make sure you print at 100% and you don't have to worry about getting the size right.

From there just add text, frames, artwork, or whatever strikes your fancy. You can set opacity (transparency) on a per layer basis so lining up text with the holes is a breeze. When you print to the decal, turn off the background layer you used to line everything up, turn opacity back to 100% (unless you're using it as an effect) and let rip thru the printer.


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## joelorigo (Jul 29, 2020)

I have been using GIMP. It’s free and it’s like photoshop. I had some experience with photoshop years ago but I still had to google almost everything I needed to do. After about 8 finished pedals I’m getting better at it, but still having look things up. I have a project that is the actual size of a 125B enclosure and one that is the size of a 1590B that I use and have duplicated for each new pedal. Then I export what i need to print and import that into another 8.5 x 11 project. Then I’ll put several copies of the design in case I mess up cutting it out or applying the decal. Or I’ll use the 8.5 x 11 project to print decals for 2 or 3 pedals. I take it to kinkos to print. I’ve learned some things from trial and error and mistakes about decals in the year since I’ve been building pedals.


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## crashguitar (Jul 29, 2020)

I use Inkscape. I import the drill template from the pdf of the build document. Usually it coverts it such that I can manipulate and delete the parts of the template that I don't need. Then I plan the artwork on top of the template. Finally, I hide the template and print the artwork. For me, it helps to add a couple of guide marks for the edges of the artwork. 

Inkscape is free and I believe supposed to work similarly to Adobe Illustrator. It is vector-based instead of pixel-based like Photoshop. I have been using it for years, but it seems everyone has a favorite software to use. 

Chad


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## MaxDB54 (Jul 29, 2020)

Good info! 
Thx!


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## Prudhomb (Jul 29, 2020)

I followed this and it worked well for design. Links to free software to make the layered vector images. 







Now I have successfully designed them, I 
am struggling with a good application.  After 5 attempts  I am still trying to get a good application. Each time has been better but definitely a learning curve here.


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## caiofilipini (Jul 29, 2020)

This one's pretty good too:









						Using GIMP to Create Pedal Artwork
					

Here’s the table of contents for the whole DIY pedal building series: Intro to DIY Pedal Building Beginner’s Course in Sketchup, Modeling a 125B Guitar Pedal Enclosure Drilling a 125B G…




					www.planetz.com


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