Hi everyone!
How can I print some white letters on clear decal paper with a deskjet printer?
I need to have the white ID number on a red plane.
Thanks.

Micro Mark makes a white decal paper (I'm sure others do too). Use an outline font in your background color. print the numbers then cut them out using a sharp #11. I'd show you a photo of my Furias, but I lost all my files in a major screw up (Never, Never, ever restart your computer with a Kodak photo disc/CD in the drive!). If you get MA you can go back about three issues and see it in Greg Gimlick's article
Wt

Thanks Wt
but cutting is the thing I just want to avoid.
Letters will be 8mm tall so cutting an S, a B so small give no good result.
The plane is a C337 parkflyer.
Philippe.

Why not try yellow lettering? Should give you good contrast on a red background.

Brad

Since your letters are so small, just print on the clear decal sheet and cut out around the outside outlines and leave the small stuff in place. That way you only have to position the one decal sheet.

The only way you can print white on clear decal paper is with an old ALPs printer.

So the easy way to do what you want is print on white paper with the background as close as you can match it and cut as close around the letters as you can.

If you can exactly match the red background, you could print red background on white decal paper, cut out the whole works in one piece and paste it on. I suspect, however, you would not get a perfect color match with the plane and the printed stuff might fade enough to make it look bad after some time in the sun. A compromise might be to print the letters with a fairly thin red border (clear letters, red border on white paper). You could then cut out the letters a little less carefully and position them individually. A very fine red border that is not a perfect match probably wouldn't show much.

Ross

They have rub on transfers in white. You would have to clear coat them afterwards to make them fuel proof.

There is an inkjet printer that will print white, but I don't remember what it is. I do remember that it's VERY expensive. It came up in discussion a lot on the HyperScale forum - a forum for plastic model builders. It's a great place to go if you want details about scale model and scale modeling techniques.

I had a vinyl cutter guy make me some numbers one time. He printed them on white. Not difficult to put them on.

I keep thinking you could print red background and clear letters, and apply over white Ultracote or Monokote. Maybe there's a flaw in my thinking there.

Good luck,
Dave Olson

I agree about using white paper with a narrow, maybe red, outline around the characters. The problem for him becomes the difficulty in cutting letters that are about 5/16" tall. Remember, he said that the letters are to be 8mm tall.

It would seem to be a better idea for him to use the yellow characters as previously suggested.

I suggest that you paint them on using stencils. Give this guy a chance. I have a sample, and it is very nice. http://www.tanks-hangar.com/html/stencils.html