Step 1: Create The Artwork
If you just want some simple
numbers, you may be able to use a font from Notepad,
or some other text / word processing
program that comes with your computer.
Here's a sample of the Comic
Sans MS Bold Italic font:
1234567890
Fred's
Resin Workshop
Here's the Script MS Bold font:
1234567890
ABCDEF abcdefg
There are lots of fonts to choose
from. In Notepad, type in your text or number, highlight it,
then in the menu, go to Format
/ Font, then pick one from the list. Keep trying until you find one that
works for you.
If you see a TT symbol in front
of the font, that means it's a "True Type" font. What it means is that
it's a scalable font.
There are certain point sizes
listed for that font, but you can type in any size you want, and it will
be scaled.
For instance, the biggest size
listed for most fonts is 72 points (72 points = 1 inch high). If you want
to make a large number
for the roof of a car, you might
want a 2 inch high number. so highlight the numbers you want enlarged,
and change the font size to 144 (2 x 72), and presto-chango you have a
2" high number. I think that 256 points (about 3.5") is the max size.
On the other end of the scale,
how small you can make the font will depend on what font you choose. It's
more limited by the decal making process - we'll talk about that more later.
If you can't find the font you
want, you can draw up your numbers using some line of art program.
The Paint program that comes
with Windows is pretty limited, but with a lot of patience, it could be
possible
to come up something that would
work.
But for best results, you'll
want to move up to software that's made for the job. Corel Draw is widely
mentioned
as being reasonably easy to
use, and available at a reasonable cost, especially in older versions.
I use Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator,
which are industry standards, but expensive and take awhile to learn.
While I'm not very good at it,
I've gotten to the point where I can do pretty much what I need to do.
No matter what software you use, you've just gotta dive in and get your hands dirty....