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Make 12x18" signs at home on 8.5x11" B&W laser printer



 
 
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  #91  
Old January 14th 18, 09:07 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,rec.photo.digital,alt.comp.freeware
Eco Clean
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Posts: 61
Default Make 12x18" signs at home on 8.5x11" B&W laser printer

- Mayayana wrote:

It's a very interesting little ditty, if you wanted to
make giant posters. But I don't see why you'd want
pointilized letters.


I don't understand. Please explain.
The letters are truetype free road sign fonts.
What's pointilized about them?

| Any ideas for how to get the paper transferred to plastic with common home
| equipment?

Spray adhesive? Expensive. It's basically
rubber cement in a spray can, so you could
also use rubber cement.


I'm liking more the idea that Susan came up with which is to use the
printouts from Rasterbator to figure out exactly the layout and size of the
letters, and then buy stick-on vinyl letters and then cover them up with
some kind of laminate or adhesive.

That would eliminate the paint spraying.

Vinyl letters don't appear to be cheap though, at least not on my first few
hits anyway. Lots more expensive than a $1 can of spray paint is plus maybe
another $1 can of some kind of "varnish" to protect the letters.

This page discusses the right vinyl letters for outdoor long term signs.
[https://blog.signwarehouse.com/outdo...l-signs-last/]
  #92  
Old January 14th 18, 09:10 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,rec.photo.digital,alt.comp.freeware
Eco Clean
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Posts: 61
Default Make 12x18" signs at home on 8.5x11" B&W laser printer

- Mayayana wrote:

I don't want to throw a wrench in trhe works if this
approach is working for you, but you already had the
print working with overlap. If the "auto-tile-print"
approach doesn't work thewn just go back to that,
or make the 4 tiles yourself by making the 4 images
in PSP.


I agree with you that the only problem I had with the first methods
suggested were that only one page of the four pages was printing.

The *size* was fine of that one page - so my only problem was that it
wasn't obvious how to print the other three pages.

Luckily, Rasterbator takes care of all that where all you feed it is the
ratio (in this case, 1.4111_) by width, and it creates a *4-page PDF*,
which instantaneously *solves* the problem of figuring out how to print the
missing other three pages in Irfanview or PSP or PowerPoint or whatever!

The beauty of Rasterbator is that it will work with any image format, so
it's independent of the program used to create the documents.

People keep alluding to far better freeware Windows vector based
sign-creation programs (which, after all was the original question), but I
tested all the viable suggestions and they all failed flat.

If I missed it, I apologize, but what free Windows vector-based
sign-creation program (with alignment marks and border control) did anyone
suggest that I missed?

I'd be glad to test it if someone would just repeat their suggestion so I
know which one they are talking about that is good for making signs.
  #93  
Old January 14th 18, 09:43 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,rec.photo.digital,alt.comp.freeware
Eco Clean
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Posts: 61
Default Make 12x18" signs at home on 8.5x11" B&W laser printer

- Mayayana wrote:

Have you definitely ruled out stick-on letters?
That would cost more, but it might be a lot
easier.
Rub-down letters used to be very reasonably
priced, but I'm not sure if you can get them
anymore.


I am agreeing with you that outdoor-quality stick-on letters with some kind
of "varnish" (you suggested rubber cement) to protect them seems to be
another viable option.

In fact, that option negates all the flaws of spray painting, and yet,
still leverages all the Powerpoint and Rasterbator effort we put into this
project.

The only problem will be finding *cheap* outdoor vinyl letters that last.

A plan that seems better than spray painting, that fits your suggestion
might be:

1. Use PowerPoint (or anything) to get an idea of the sign content.
2. Use Rasturbator to create an accurate "floorplan" & "inventory".
3. Use stick-on self-adhesive vinyl letters according to that floorplan.

And then maybe spray paint over it with a clear varnish or lacquer to
protect the sign from the outdoor weather.

Overall, that process should work well if the right price can be had for
the vinyl letters where an advantage of steps 1 and 2 is that the size of
the vinyl letters is already confirmed, as is the total inventory of how
many of each specific letter is required.

The trick of course is finding good outdoor vinyl letters for a good price.

Most sites seem to make the prices hard to find.
[https://doityourselflettering.com/]

But this site seems to have prices listed by the letter:
[https://www.lettersunlimited.com/price.php]

The letters and borders needed (as measured off the Newt sign) a
A) 5/8" (outside border, with rounded corners)
B) 3/8" (inside line delimeter)
C) 7/8" (uppermost & lowermost tiny letters)
D) 2-7/8" (large letters)
E) 1-1/2" (small letters)

The 1.5" letters are 50 cents each, while they don't have the right size
for the 2-7/8" letters but we can assume it's about $0.65 each. They don't
have 5/8" letters, but the 1/2 inch letters are 40 cents each.

For price, we can figure on an average of about 50 cents per letter
(roughly), and a count of a few signs shows about 50 smallest letters ($20)
plus about 30 of the medium sized letters ($12) and about a dozen of the
large letters ($8) which is about $40 for the vinyl letters for one sign.

And that doesn't count the borders and lines.

So unless a far cheaper price (about half) is found, vinyl will be
prohibitive in terms of cost over spray paint.
  #94  
Old January 14th 18, 09:44 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,rec.photo.digital,alt.comp.freeware
Susan Bugher
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Posts: 43
Default Make 12x18" signs at home on 8.5x11" B&W laser printer

On 1/14/2018 3:01 PM, Susan Bugher wrote:
On 1/14/2018 2:19 PM, Eco Clean wrote:


These will be outdoor signs, which have to weather rain and snow, so
paper
won't work.


It ain't necessarily so...

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=how+to+waterproof+paper+signs&t=hg&ia=videos


perhaps especially:
https://www.waterproofpaper.com/
and
https://www.waterproofpaper.com/11x17-paper.shtml

Perhaps you could shrink your signs down a bit 11"x17" is not a lot
smaller than 12"x18".

The blanks will be metal or plastic (whatever we can get) and the paint
will be "outdoor" paint (whatever that means), so that they will last
a few
years outside.


Susan
--
Posted to alt.comp.freeware (using WinXP-SP2, Win7professional-32 bit)
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.pricelesswarehome.org


  #95  
Old January 14th 18, 09:51 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,rec.photo.digital,alt.comp.freeware
Eco Clean
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Posts: 61
Default Make 12x18" signs at home on 8.5x11" B&W laser printer

- Susan Bugher wrote:

How do I tell what .NET Framework I have, if any?
Looking in CCleaner, it doesn't show up under Microsoft or under .NET.


If you REALLY, REALLY ca
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/framework/migration-guide/how-to-determine-which-versions-are-installed


Wow. What a PITA, where they have a different way for different versions of
Net frmework. Another reason Net framework is a PITA.

At least I can confirm Rasterbator works on Windows 10 without having to
add another net framework.

Thanks!

I'm spending my time installing and running the three suggested softwares.
http://www.posteriza.com/es/index.php?lang=en_US
https://sourceforge.net/projects/posterazor/
https://inkscape.org/en/release/0.92.2/
  #96  
Old January 14th 18, 09:55 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,rec.photo.digital,alt.comp.freeware
Mayayana
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Posts: 1,514
Default Make 12x18" signs at home on 8.5x11" B&W laser printer

"Eco Clean" wrote

| We can laminate over the painting with your idea of those 12"x18"
| laminating self-adhesive sheets.
|

I was thinking of the laminate sheets for going
over glued paper, not paint. In other words:

1) cut out letters and use that template to
spray signs. Done.

2) Glue printed text directly to sign backing,
stick on laminate sheets to protect. Done.

3) Maybe this actually makes more sense, if
you don't use stick-on letters:
Draw letters onto sign backing and find someone
with a steady hand to fille them in with a small brush.

Lots of options. But you'll have to pick
one eventually.


  #97  
Old January 14th 18, 10:01 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,rec.photo.digital,alt.comp.freeware
Mayayana
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Posts: 1,514
Default Make 12x18" signs at home on 8.5x11" B&W laser printer

"Eco Clean" wrote

| It's a very interesting little ditty, if you wanted to
| make giant posters. But I don't see why you'd want
| pointilized letters.
|
| I don't understand. Please explain.
| The letters are truetype free road sign fonts.
| What's pointilized about them?

Are we talking about the same thing? Rasterbator
asks for an image, then thruns that into a pointilized
image to be printed on multiple sheets of paper. It's
not just enlarging. It's making it like newspaper print.
The image is viewable at a distance but is actually
composed of dots on a white background. But maybe
if you're setting it to 2mm dots it looks OK.


  #98  
Old January 14th 18, 10:12 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,rec.photo.digital,alt.comp.freeware
Eco Clean
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Posts: 61
Default Make 12x18" signs at home on 8.5x11" B&W laser printer

- Mayayana wrote:

I was thinking of the laminate sheets for going
over glued paper, not paint. In other words:

1) cut out letters and use that template to
spray signs. Done.

2) Glue printed text directly to sign backing,
stick on laminate sheets to protect. Done.

3) Maybe this actually makes more sense, if
you don't use stick-on letters:
Draw letters onto sign backing and find someone
with a steady hand to fille them in with a small brush.

Lots of options. But you'll have to pick
one eventually.


Thanks for all your help as you're trying to be helpful, as are most of the
others.

The spray painting on the metal blanks that we already have was the
original plan and it's still looking like the cheapest.

We just have to get the technique down for creating the clear plastic
cut-out templates which I think I have working now.

The vinyl letters are prohibitively expensive unless there's a way to
borrow a vinyl printer. I have a friend with a 3D printer, but I can't see
how that would be any better yet.
  #99  
Old January 14th 18, 10:16 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,rec.photo.digital,alt.comp.freeware
Eco Clean
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Posts: 61
Default Make 12x18" signs at home on 8.5x11" B&W laser printer

- Mayayana wrote:

Are we talking about the same thing? Rasterbator
asks for an image, then thruns that into a pointilized
image to be printed on multiple sheets of paper. It's
not just enlarging. It's making it like newspaper print.
The image is viewable at a distance but is actually
composed of dots on a white background. But maybe
if you're setting it to 2mm dots it looks OK.


You explained my confusion!

I started with PowerPoint, with truetype fonts, and then we printed that
but the printouts only printed the first corner, where the other three
corners were "hidden".

So I went to Rasterbator, which you say "pointilizes" the fonts (which I
don't disagree with you now that you've explained how), and where the dots
are set to 1mm. I just tried to set the dots to 0.1mm but Rasterbator won't
let me, so I assume 1mm dots are the smallest size.

BTW, what is 1mm? When I use that setting, *nothing* is 1mm. The dots are
tinier than that.

So what exactly is that 1mm telling me? Is that the distance between dot
centers? It doesn't seem like that's what it is.

But anyway, I'll be *cutting* these out with an x-acto knife, which is,
after all, a "vector" tool, is it not?
  #100  
Old January 14th 18, 10:22 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,rec.photo.digital,alt.comp.freeware
Eco Clean
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Posts: 61
Default Make 12x18" signs at home on 8.5x11" B&W laser printer

- Jonathan N. Little wrote:

There are freeware vector graphics programs available. I listed some,


Bearing in mind that my x-acto knife is the final "vector" program, I did
install Inkscape and wrote up my observations from the first half hour of
testing.

These are in my observation log...

This is a suggested vector-based Windows pgm for printing signs.
https://inkscape.org/en/release/0.92.2/

I installed the msi.
Installs Python 2.7

The first time you run it, it takes *minutes* to start.
Inkscape won't input powerpoint but does input images and PDF.

It doesn't do automatic alignment marks either.
Nor does it do automatic borders for non-printable areas.
Nor does it tile when I print although there may be a trick to tiling?

All that is exactly like PowerPoint was so it's not different in those ways
The ony thing different is that it's vector based so scaling is better.

But if I'm forced to use Rasterbator to tile the Inkscape signs, then I
lost my advantage of vectors anyway, plus, an x-acto knife is a vector
tool.

So I don't see any advantage for the purpose of signs to be used as cut-out
templates, but for *direct printing*, the vectors would be nice.

But then you *still* have to solve the problem of tiling, which I see
nothing in Inkscape that has *anything* to do with tiling.

Do you?
Did I miss a tiling option somewhere in Inkscape?
 




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