Drawing decals: standard resolution
 

Hi! Just wanted to find out the YORF hivemind's consensus.

What's the current standard (or minimum) resolution to draw decals at?

(Yes, I'm talking vector instead of raster.)

Please weigh in above, and/or reply to this thread. Thanks in advance! :D

No clue whatsoever.
I don't draw em, I BUY em.

I don't really notice a difference between 300 and 600 with my printer.

Jay,

If they're vector based, then resolution only comes into play at print time. If you're drawing using lines and curves ala Illustrator or some other vector drawing tool, things will always appear smooth - with no jaggies - no matter how tightly you zoom. It's only when you print that resolution becomes a factor, or when you export to a bitmap such as bmp, png or jpg.

I'd say 300 dpi should be more than adequate for decals.

Doug


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To coin a phrase... 300 dpi ought to be enough for everyone.
I voted 600 dpi.

With an Alps printer the default setting is 600 dpi.

That seems to come out real nice.

But I don't think that applies here. :o

I find that the text on downscales from BT50 to BT5 still look good at 300dpi. Like the fine print on a mini Photon Disruptor (Hmmm... that might have been a Sandman order... or did I only get the upscale from him?) or my mini QCC. I get more error/sloppiness from Illustrator's line tracing algorithm around text.

Out of the hundreds I've redrawn they have all been vector. I'd suggest you consider getting an old copy of Illustrator or other vector drawing app on eBay and learn how to use that.

Your question is a bit off since you say "vector" rather than raster but you're asking about resolution?

I suspect he means what you print at. Even with a vector art program, you need to convert to raster at print time. Unless you're cutting vinyl.

For clones, it depends on the resolution and quality of the available scanned decals on the usual plan websites if I decide I have to redraw them myself, like if you are upscaling. Simply enlarging a 150dpi scan for a 2X clone will look like 75 dpi and won't look so good unless you redraw it, for example. In that case, might as well print the decals on a dot-matrix printer. :-)

In some cases, you may miss very minor detail in the scan, like the Centuri Excalibur, for example... in the scanned instructions you can see the logo more clearly than in the scanned decals. Even the SEMROC decal sheet is missing the thin line on the sword in the X.