The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I am looking for a decal similar to this. It is a sheet music cabinet. Any alternative ideas or suggestions also appreciated.
Thanks

Greg Cline offers custom decals if you have a good high resolution picture you can send him. Not sure about the cost, but his standard phono decals are excellent.
Andreas

That decal already looks pretty good. Here's what I would try -- borrow a high quality, high resolution digital camera and take the best picture you can of that decal. Use a tripod, control the lighting, avoid glare, shoot straight-on from a moderate telephoto setting to avoid lens distortion, etc. Then use a photo editing program to touch up the defects until you have a perfect copy of the decal. Send that image off to someone like Greg Cline to print it out.

Scan the image if you can at the highest resolution. Tidy it up in a photo edit program. Then buy some laser print decal paper and make your own.
If you don't have a scanner or laser printer. Buy the decal paper on-line and take the lot to an output center where they can scan on a large bed scanner and print on a laser printer.
Plenty of information on the Internet on methods of applying and sealing decals.
I've even used this method to repair decals. That is keep the original decal and add only what is missing from the new decal.

I have also used ink jet printer decal stock with good results.

Clay

Most ink jet inks are water-based, so you need to be quick applying them. The ink also fades rather quickly, even after it has been sealed, not something you want to have to do again a few years later. I did some a few years ago and they have faded even stored in a drawer. Laser printing works out quite cheap at an output center as they charge by the sheet and you can get quite a few decals on an A4 sheet. Of course you still have to deal with the same problems of colour management. What you see on a screen may not be what is printed.

chunnybh wrote:Most ink jet inks are water-based, so you need to be quick applying them. The ink also fades rather quickly, even after it has been sealed, not something you want to have to do again a few years later. I did some a few years ago and they have faded even stored in a drawer. Laser printing works out quite cheap at an output center as they charge by the sheet and you can get quite a few decals on an A4 sheet. Of course you still have to deal with the same problems of colour management. What you see on a screen may not be what is printed.

There have been great advances in ink jet printing in recent years, likely driven by the fact that so many people are using them to print digital photos now. I haven't experienced those problems using a current model printer.

Clay

I think some color inks are made using pigments rather than dyes. Those should last longer.

Thanks for the excellent advice. I scanned the decal and spent a couple hours in Photoshop cleaning it up and this is what I have. The 1st picture is a scan of the decal after being printed. The 2nd is the Photoshop image.
Jim