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[Crossie]

 I need a bit of advice from those folk who know more about computer printing than I, so I hope that this question is in the right place! What are the easiest or best programmes or should I say 'apps'? that are readily available for me to produce some lettering of the sizes and fonts that I want for a model. I don't want to buy some mega complex thing that a graphic designer might use commercially. I use a laptop running W10 and have a good printer to print them onto some waterslide transfer paper. I've used this paper before using hand drawn designs which were scanned and then printed and want to use this rather than, say, Letraset.  I've tried a bit of a search on this Forum but couldn't get a result, might have asked the wrong search question though!

                                                               Trevor

[Peter Fitness]

I use either Photoshop Elements, which is a cut down (and much cheaper) version of the full Photoshop software, or Print Shop v 3.5 by Broderbund. Print Shop is cheaper than Photoshop and is not as comprehensive, but it's easy to use and has a good range of fonts available. The latest version is v 4.0.


Peter.

[dougal99]

Any word processor will allow you to scale fonts and produce bold or italic characters. Open office or Libre office are free. If you want to produce curved text Fontart is part of Open office.

[tigertiger]

If it is just basic lettering, MS Word has a range of about 100 fonts already in it (you can change size and color), and there are also special effects fonts like curved (you can adjust curves).
You can also download some special fonts free, but watch out for adware.

[canabus]

Hi
I use Office of an old paint shop pro 7 and down load a few font pack for free(about 300,000 fonts), but, a lot look the same to me.
I found one which I am getting laser cut out of my false transom.
The plan is to put tinted plastic at the back of this , so it looks like black writing, but, I will have blue LED lights to switch on via a servo.

[Crossie]

Hi All,
           Many thanks for the replies so plenty of options for me to try. Before I download anything extra  I'm working my way thought the built in programmes/apps. My biggest difficulty is not so much in finding fonts and creating the letters as I want them, but it is more in the setting up of the 'page' and understanding the plethora of instructions and menu options simply because I do not use these systems frequently enough, and trying to frequently refer to 'help pages' is frustrating and trying to remember them is even worse- - must be an age thing!. All this is made worse over the past couple of days as Microscams wonderful new W10 seems to have added updates and the keyboard now often produces un-demanded results like menus and bluerectangles everywhere. And I haven't even bashed this 'device' in rage- - - - honest . Not yet!

                            Trevor.

[tigertiger]

If you are using MS Office apps, then the Dummies Guides are great. If you get the one for your version of the apps then it is easier.

[malcolmfrary]

I use an ancient copy of MS Publisher that does everything I want.  For going a bit special, it has a feature called "WordArt" that lets you curve a word.  I believe that the feature is in MS Office (don't know, haven't got it).  There is something similar in Libre Office in the "Draw" part called "Fontwork".  I found this a lot clunky to use, and, already having the best tool, have never bothered climbing the learning curve.
For simple text, any word processor will do the job if it can access and use the fonts, even Notepad.
Decal printing is simple if black lettering is what is wanted - it gets a bit complex when colours are involved because a white background is needed if the print is not to just vanish.

[Crossie]

 Thanks for the advice Malcolm , more than 20 years ago I did use MS publisher quite a lot on our old W3.1 machine that we had at the time and I did get reasonably proficient producing labels and product sheets for my wife's small business, but since then I've really forgotten those skills and also nowadays poor old Microsoft wants paying for the Office products. I have Openoffice and the Windows accessories such as Paint and Notepad so shall try with that as I don't intend spending on something that will get little use . Another aspect is that as one gets older and the road ahead is a lot shorter than the one already travelled I am mindful of how much time I want to spend learning how to do something because there is always so much else to do- - or try to do !

                           Trevor

[Brian60]

If you have Paint. Then the full range of true text fonts included with Windows is available to you, that's around 100 fonts, being a simple art program it also allows some manipulation of the drawing/text as well.

[tizdaz]

Any word processing prog will do, or even paint, theres 1000's of free fonts you can get from the net, heres a site i use often for free fonts: http://www.dafont.com/

[steve mahoney]

I have a fair bit of experience in this field and for simple lettering any programme will do.
Photoshop type programs will do it but the result is pixellated (even at high resolution) so a drawing (vector) program is best.
It sounds complicated but it's pretty simple.

If you are using a PC then Corel Draw is OK, Word is fine. Mac has many more such as Indesign and illustrator (expensive).
Many simple to use free drawing programs are available online. Google: free online vector drawing program and lots pop up

It's the range of fonts that is usually the problem.
There are several websites that offer free fonts for Mac or PC.
Try http://www.dafont.com/theme.php?cat=104
There are thousands of fonts available but most ship name style fonts are in the Sans Serif category.

[nivapilot]

Like Malcolm I use Microsoft Publisher, does all I need it to, and if you allow it to show the guidelines, grid or rulers, you know how high the finished article will be.
used the white decal paper to produce white letters on my tug, just used a black background and laquered in situ...