Waterslide graphic design

[shedland]

Hi All

I want to try some waterslides for a few pedals and a guitar build I have in the works.

I have the waterslides and a laser printer.

What software (free preferred) do you use to design the graphics, I have seen some amazing work on here and would like to have a go.

Cheers
Doug

[davent]

Inkscape is a free one that will probably get a lot of love. I sometimes have also used Gimp, another free one, before moving an image to Inkscape.

I start with a CAD software to do the enclosure layout and drill guide then the other two to decorate the CAD drawing. The CAD drawing gets imported into Inkscape.

dave

[shedland]

Cheers for that Dave

[Ralfg]

Whenever I use Inkscape to do any graphics, it seems to have a problem with using vectors and graphics together when printing. The graphics always turn out black. So I export the entire design to a png then bring that back into a new Inkscape doc and then print.

Just a heads up before you print onto your expensive waterside paper, do a test run on normal paper first.

[wgc]

Vectors can be tricky to learn to work with but very powerful in terms of ability to rescale without losing resolution and inducing pixelation like you can get when rescaling raster images. Vectors are very helpful with retaining clarity of text and fine lines.

But raster editing (jpg, png, etc) is a little easier to wrap your head around imho.  You can do a lot of cool stuff by using layers in your software. Also helps to start with big, high resolution images and scale down. Scaling rasters up is almost always bad.

Paint.net is a great free program that works much the same as photoshop and the ui is a little easier than gimp.  Inkscape is a pretty nice vector program esp for the price.

Some new, relatively low cost pro alternatives to adobe stuff that I bought recently are affinity photo and affinity designer. Win/mac/Ipad. Can't say enough good stuff about it.

affinity.serif.com

[AntKnee]

I use paint.net also. Due to the resolution and scaling issues, I create a very large design, then I use good old windows Paint to print, where i can scale down the printout to size without affecting the quality much, if any. The layer ise is really nice to separate image, labels, template, etc.
I  alao drill out my enclosure, then scan it on my scanner for an exact representation of my work area. That becomes my base layer in paint.net and I build on top of it from there.

[galaxiex]

+1 for Paint.net

I found it fairly easy to learn and powerful enough for the type of graphics I do.
Water slide or sometimes stickers.

[Willybomb]

Photoshop.

[flanagan0718]

Honestly I use power point. It works really well, handles vectors nicely, and has a lot of great alignment tools.

[peAk]

Like wgc said, vector programs are amazing

I use Corel Draw which is basically a poor man's Adobe Illustrator but I love it

[Aleph Null]

I use Gimp (on Linux) for planning and graphics. It's easy to set the image resolution and you can set the size in pixels, millimeters, or inches. I like to work in layers so that I can separate the drill template, graphics, and knobs and switches. You can also control how the layers interact. I use "darken only" to help predict how clears decals will look over painted enclosures.

[WormBoy]

Here another PowerPoint user. Simple and gets the job done for me. Additionally Paint and paint.net for some manipulation of pics (such as removing a background).

[shedland]

This is awesome guys,

Looks like I have a fair old bit to go away and work on.

Thanks a lot.

[sarde]

I use powerpoint as well. I already have it and i don't need to learn anything else. Then again I'm lazy and creatively dull.

[stringsthings]

I use Inkscape.  It took me a while to get the hang of it, but now I'm very comfortable
with it.   It does have it's quirks.  But it's free.