Letraset

[LektroiD]

has anyone tried this for labelling their panels? I know it won't be possible to make the legend around the pots, but has to be better than using a Sharpie marker pen.



http://www.letraset.com/design/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=2927&cat=+Charlotte+Sans+Book

[The Bad Producer]

Hi LektroiD,

I use this, but I get someone to print it for me. I do all the text and stuff on Illustrator and send it to the signwriting place I use, and they give me a sheet back, usually the same day. Its £33 for an A4 sheet, any solid colour. That is probably enough for a whole rack of panels.

It works better than letraset, as you get the whole word, rather than just the letters, and you can do vector graphics, so you can have tick marks, logos, lines, boxes etc.

Its a bit fiddly to do, and you need to varnish afterwards (I use Marabu matt spray-on varnish, it has a really nice neutral finish) but the results are great I think! Check out my blog for photos of what I've done (its all Letraset, I've not uploaded pictures of newer stuff with lines and ticks yet though)

Charlie

[AnalogCustom]

[parasat]

I strongly advise against it.

I've been using Letraset for over 30 years, for both personal and professional projects. It's fiddly and annoying. You'll spend as much time applying it as you will with an Xacto knife or razor blade removing your mistakes. And you have to seal it-it chips off if you look at it wrong.

About 25 years ago Letraset ran an ad in a major magazine with the headline "This Entire Ad was typeset in Letraset!" All the type ran downhill

Custom Letraset removes some of the fiddlyness of trying to apply normal Letraset letter by letter, but you'll be better served by inkjet printable decal material. You won't have to deal with the wandering baseline issues.

Check out The Bad Producer's blog for his panels: first rate workmanship and layouts are great, but the baseline wanders. Look at "Mix" in this panel for example : http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ozh2t3eRMYw/SsYH1oBqgSI/AAAAAAAAAD4/GIw-jsAq5j0/s1600-h/attenuverter.JPG

admitting he is somewhat of a typeseting snob,
Parasat

[blue hell]

[parasat]

Yeah, a light table helps a lot, but I never found one that could shine through a projector or mixer

[hodad]

It is fiddly, & it's very hard to make it line up perfectly, but it can be very functional. I have used it to make 9:00-12:00-3:00 tick marks for pots just to give me a vague idea if I need to write a setting down. One recommendation I have if you decide to use it: if you paint your panel, use flat paint. The clearcoat seems to adhere better to flat than to satin or glossy.

[The Bad Producer]

I agree with Hodad, the paint finish is really important, and flat (matt) paint IS the only one to use!

Parasat - I totally agree, the baseline does tend to wander as you rub the words down... The guy who prints my words suggested a quick coat of hairspray on the back of the word, he says it makes sure that the letters don't wander as you rub...

I have not tried this yet - it sounds really fiddly TBH, but I'm going to try it on my next panel.

I do find it really quick and easy to do though, and I chose a 6 point font as I knew that the type would wander, and I thought it would be less noticeable at that size! What I might try is letters in the same colour as the panel, but glossy, so they are not immediately apparent, this means a nice clean panel with no lettering from a distance, but if you've forgotten what a particular control is, you can just about make out the legending. I'm not too bothered about tick marks, but I have put numbers round switches (eg on the gate sequencer panels I did) now THAT is fiddly and annoying! I'd also like to get a sheet done of just lines and curves to link pots and their respective jacks, I wonder if they'd start going wonky!

Charlie

PS thanks for the kind words about the panels!

[Tim Servo]

I've got three words for you:
Clear Ink Jet Labels... four words, dang.

Anyway, I like the Avery #8665. They're 8.5 x 11" and I print them on my ink jet printer. I like to do the panel art in AutoCAD or Corel Draw and badda-bing, the whole panel is done at once. This is the same technicque Thomas Henry shows in his new DVD (coming soon from Magic Smoke). Throw on a couple light coats of clear satin spray and I've got a reasonable looking panel. Maybe not as durable as silkscreen or something like that, but cheap, fast and really easy. Kind of like me!

Tim (cheap, but not inexpensive) Servo

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TH-102 XR VCO Panel.jpg
Description:	My home brew panel for the XR VCO. Labeled with clear sheet label.
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[parasat]

Charlie, I tried hairspray back in the 70s, and it caused the smaller Letraset fonts to blur and the larger ones to break up. But that was in the days of chlorofluorocarbons based sprays, and they are a solvent (in addition to an ozone killer). Maybe a modern vegetable based hairspray would work, or maybe it's modern alcohol propellant would dissolve it. As much as I hate the stuff, I'm curious to see how it works. And see below

Hodad, that's one of things I used to use Letraset for. A lot of the gear I used to repair had crackle finishes (what we used to call a "mother of prune" finish), so i couldn't use decals-but you can. Stop by your local hob shop, they should have sheets of decals preprinted with stripes in various colors. Try it, a bit fiddly, but as long as they are wet they can be repositioned. I'm always amazed at what preprinted decals you can find. Double ditto on the paint

Tim, I've never used the Avery product. Will give it a try.

All that said I just repaired my dad's VCR. And I relabeled it with a Dymo Labelmaker He's happy with it, and that's all that matters...