Cabinet Marquee

[zx-81]

Hi,

just to know how to print the Mame logo to use it on my Cabinet ??
which support does I use ??
is it possible to print it myself with my Hp 930C ??

thx in advance for your help

          Zx-81
www.arcadefan.be.tf

[JLR2000]

ZX-81 -

You can print the Marquee several different ways, depending on your budget.  You can have it printed at a copy shop like Kinkos or a sign shop, but this will cost $$$ depending on what you have it printed on.

You can print it on your color printer.  Many people have done that and have been happy with the results.  If you have the printer, why not print it yourself, then judge if that is good enough or if you want to spend the extra $$$ to have it professionally printed.

Not sure what you mean by "which support does I use?".  I'll guess that you mean how do you install the marquee....here's an excellent thread with the how-tos and pics to explain:

http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=3655;start=0

Good Luck.

[zx-81]

sorry for my bad english, but with support I mean what must I use to print on ( Paper, plastic film, .... ) caus i already have a used Glass Marquee

thx

[JLR2000]

No need to apologize, I can only write poorly in one language!

What I did was printed on paper and then used plexiglass to "sandwhich" the paper, or hold it.  You might want to consider not using the existing glass marquee and buying some new glass or plexiglass to hold the new printed marquee.  If your existing Marquee is not worth saving, I guess you could use paint thinner or a utility knife to remove the old marquee, but that just seems like more work than it's worth.  Get new glass or plexi and put your new marquee in that.  

Again, I used paper, some people use plastic film to print on. It's a matter of preference.  I read that some people spray paint the back piece of marquee glass white to help diffuse the light thru the marquee picture better, I didn't do this.  I hope this makes sense.  Read thru the example section here, there is a lot of good information.

[Brad Lee]

Here's what I did

Cut my plexi to the right size
Printed my graphic on white paper, color inkjet
On my graphic I added a 1/4" black border around the words
Cut the paper right along my black border for a "bleed" area
Taped the cutout graphic to the back of the plexi
Sprayed the whole thing with black spraypaint, leaving as much of the paper unsprayed as I could

How did it turn out? I don't know yet- I just sprayed it over lunch. After work I'll get some pics of it and get it installed

Kinda cheap, but this is just a temporary until I get around to a full size print done at Kinko's.. When that time comes I'll price the difference between doing it on transparency and on backlight film. If the transparency is cheaper/looks nicer, I'll sandwich it between white plexi and a clear peice. if the backlight film is better I'll just go with 2 clear peices

I'll be doing the same with the monitor bezel tonight(if this turns out good)

[zx-81]

Thx a lot for your expert advices !!!
I ll buy tomorrow some plexi and a new color ink catrige for the printer

see ya

Zx-81 @ www.arcadefan.be.tf

[Brad Lee]

No pics cuz my cam batteries have passed on

The results were not good. Where it was jsut black paint on plexi it was stil lsemi-transparent after 1 coat. Ive sprayed again, so maybe multiple coats will do the trick.
Where it was the paper over the plexi it bled through somethin feirce, making it unreadable at best and opaque in parts.

Definitely not what I was aimin for, but that's not entirely bad since this is pretty much just testing until I can do it right

[ScienceofSpock]

I had Kinkos (Here in the US, not sure for other countries) print my Marquee on Backlit plastic. It cost me $30 even for full color. The Backlit material is a thin white translucent plastic, and they referred to the material simply as "Backlit", so I cannot tell you exactly what it is, but it is something they stock normally.
The material is much stiffer than paper, but still bows a bit if it's not supported on the back side, so I sandwitched it between two 1/16" pieces of lexan.
My artwork was reversed, then printed on the backside of the material. It appears a bit faded when the marquee light isn't on, but it REALLY shines when lit.
Also, be sure to account for overlap where the marquee mounting brackets are concerned. I neglected to do that on the top of mine, and part of my title is obscured by the top bracket.
I designed my artwork in Photoshop at 300dpi, and the only requirement they had was that any fonts used should be rasterized, OR all the layers in the .psd file should be flattened (which rasterizes the text by default).
I dropped it off on a tuesday at 5:30pm and it was ready on Thursday at 5:00pm.
All in all, very good service from them, and the printing was top notch. I also had them do the vinyl overlay for my CP which I covered with lexan as well (this also cost $30 even)