Author Topic: Tutorial: Printing your own marquee (Read 21142 times)

jWin · « **on:** January 25, 2007, 01:19:38 pm »

First let me say that the quality wont be the same as found from the various online marquee vendors. This tutorial explains how to create your own marquees at maximum quality, I am creating my own simply because I would like to change my marquee every now and then, I get tired of seeing the same thing over and over and getting them printed from kinkos or online retailers adds up.

The printer used in this tutorial was an Epson R200, the software used is Adobe Photoshop CS2.

I tested many different papers from posterboard paper, to arts and craft paper, to banner paper found at officemax or made by Avery and none of it was any good, usually too thin or too thick, finally I found a solution, Epson Photo Quality Ink Jet Banner Paper on an roll (product: S041102)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16828103051

A roll of this paper costs $30.60 + 3.00 shipping from Epson directly but can also be found at other online retailers, even Newegg for around the same price. I know it seems a little expensive however it is 50 FEET of paper and 16.5" wide, while it is NOT glossy paper it is coated to enhance color and prevent the "soggy wet paper". The paper will come out of the printer "soggy" looking but after allowing it to sit over night it was smooth and flat.

Ok lets get started, first you will need a CLEAN flat surface, make sure it is clean or your paper will get dirty or stained, I rolled out enough paper to cut out roughly 30" in lenght, now a normal home printer only supports 8.5" or less, wide paper, in order to cut this 16.5" wide paper I used a normal sheet of paper and simply drew a outline to cut from. The left over 8" of paper can also be used if you set your printer, the width you need is based on how wide you want your marquee to be however I recommend using 8.5" or standard width size.

After drawing your lines for cutting (mine was 8.5" wide, roughly 30" long) get out your favorite scissors or an razor/utility knife and begin cutting out your blank marquee paper, it does not matter if the edges of the paper come out rough looking unless you plan on printing right to the edge of the paper making an 8.5" wide marquee.

Next, onto printing, I used Adobe Photoshop CS2 for printing however setting it up should be nearly the same for any photo program. Load your marquee and choose print or page setup, from there go into your printer properties and for the Epson r200 go into Advanced Mode, your screen should look like this, pick User Defined, a window will popup and enter the settings as shown or based on the size of blank paper used.

Change the print quality to as shown and choose your custom defined paper size.

hit ok and make sure your paper is in "landscape" mode

and this is how your print preview should look if using Adobe Photoshop CS2, notice the actual print size will be 27" long, 7.6" height or wide as I call it.

Onto printing, you may need to hold the paper as your printer catches it to pull it in, once its printing you can let it go just make sure it doesnt snag or get caught on something or itself. Again it will come out soggy looking but give it some time, I let mine sit over night and it dried out fine, the special coating on the paper absorbs the ink.

Printing done!

And the next day after it fully dried I took my razor knife and meter stick and carefully cut it out.

And there you have it, your own printed marquee, I will post some more pictures later on showing it installed in my cab, the light shines through very nicely and there is very little, basically no "paper grain" effect, its hard to tell.

Enjoy!

*UPDATE* Installed Photos
Its difficult to get a good photo shot, these look washed out with the sunlight shining into my house at the moment, ill try to get better ones at night. The lighting behind the marquee shines through well and if needed I could always try to dim it more.

ahofle · « **Reply #1 on:** January 25, 2007, 01:26:43 pm »

Excellent. This should definitely be stickied or wiki'd.

Hurray Banana · « **Reply #2 on:** January 25, 2007, 01:28:21 pm »

Quote from: ahofle on January 25, 2007, 01:26:43 pm

Excellent. This should definitely be stickied or wiki'd.

I second that. I never realised you could get paper on a roll, I think I'll definately have a go at this

ChadTower · « **Reply #3 on:** January 25, 2007, 01:28:37 pm »

Niiiiiiiiiiiiiice.

leapinlew · « **Reply #4 on:** January 25, 2007, 01:28:52 pm »

Very nice!

jWin · « **Reply #5 on:** January 25, 2007, 01:29:34 pm »

thanks everyone

fixed a few errors and had the wrong photo for the last photo, fixed now

ahofle · « **Reply #6 on:** January 25, 2007, 01:31:43 pm »

Do you have a good source for high resolution marquee art like that?

leapinlew · « **Reply #7 on:** January 25, 2007, 01:32:57 pm »

Isn't that from www.localarcade.com ?

jWin · « **Reply #8 on:** January 25, 2007, 01:34:09 pm »

yes it is from localarcade, I think its called DefPac

better yet heres a link to it

http://www.localarcade.com/arcade_art/details.php?image_id=255

ahofle · « **Reply #9 on:** January 25, 2007, 01:38:03 pm »

Oh wow, I'm definitely trying this. Thx!

siropa · « **Reply #10 on:** January 25, 2007, 11:08:06 pm »

that's awesome. can't wait to see some pics of it installed.

fjl · « **Reply #11 on:** January 25, 2007, 11:34:40 pm »

Never even thought of that.

Printing out something like that at Kinko's, I assume would cost like $20 bucks and up. Cool!

NiteWalker · « **Reply #12 on:** January 26, 2007, 12:20:46 am »

Absolutely awesome!

I'm saving this info for my cab.

Thanks for the tutorial.

fjl · « **Reply #13 on:** January 26, 2007, 12:29:46 am »

Damn, my printer will only go as high as 23" inches. Guess I'm out of luck just because of 3 inches.

Anyone else thinking of doing this should check what their printer limits are.

tba · « **Reply #14 on:** January 26, 2007, 04:59:20 am »

my HP 970CSE is useless for this, the MAX paper size is 14"

sheesh, another reason i wont be buying another HP.

i get my marquee's printed at my local staples, as a poster... they print from a PDF file on glossy paper (oddly enough on a HP Poster printer). lit with a 11w neon it looks good ( i also like to change my marquee regularly) and only costs me $6 per sq foot of printed image, with my tiny marquee on my cab (6"x22") that only comes to $6

Loki · « **Reply #15 on:** January 26, 2007, 05:33:54 am »

Very nice!
Would be cool to find this back somewhere in the wiki

patrickl · « **Reply #16 on:** January 26, 2007, 05:39:21 am »

The trouble starts when you backlit this though.

BTW I used the same idea to print my CPO. Laminated it with clear laminate foil.

Matth9 · « **Reply #17 on:** January 26, 2007, 05:47:45 am »

That is great, thanks!

clockwork · « **Reply #18 on:** January 26, 2007, 08:57:54 am »

Excellent tutorial.

shardian · « **Reply #19 on:** January 26, 2007, 09:13:22 am »

Have you had a chance to mount and get it backlit? I am curious about how well that paper holds up to lighting.

jWin · « **Reply #20 on:** January 26, 2007, 10:11:26 am »

added installed photos, they looked washed out but its really not, ill try to get better photos when the sun goes down.

keep in mind this is not a replacement to websites such as mamemarquees or emdkay, if you want real authentic marquee quality please head there

however if you wish to make your own high quality marquees that work and look good then the above tutorial is for you.

jWin · « **Reply #21 on:** January 26, 2007, 10:52:28 am »

next up, Mortal Kombat

Since the roll of paper is 16.5" wide and I used 8.5" on the marquee in the tutorial, I still had 8" left so I used that to create this. Had to add another user defined setting in the epson printer settings, 8" x 30"

NiteWalker · « **Reply #22 on:** January 26, 2007, 11:37:03 am »

Excellent. Can you tell us some more about the printer? How much do ink carts run and how many marquees can you print before having to change the carts? Can't wait for the backlit pics.

leapinlew · « **Reply #23 on:** January 26, 2007, 11:54:11 am »

I used a marquee I printed for OldSchool before I had Kinkos print one on backlit vinyl. The one from Kinkos cost me around $20.

Between the two - the one from Kinkos is much nicer - but I was pretty happy with the printed one. I wouldn't mind using this method if I already had the printer and plenty of ink.

rdowdy95 · « **Reply #24 on:** January 26, 2007, 12:19:20 pm »

I had ordered a nice marquee from emdkay, but following saints book my marquee area was actually about 26" by 6.5" so I have the original emdkay file I will have to edit this in Paintshop Pro and print one of my own. Do they have a glossy style banner paper?

rdowdy95 · « **Reply #25 on:** January 26, 2007, 01:25:40 pm »

DOH My hp Deskjet 932c only goes to 14". POS! LOL! Oh well I will definately look into this one of these years when I get a new printer.

jWin · « **Reply #26 on:** January 26, 2007, 02:08:08 pm »

Ink for the printer im using is rather cheap, and in my case very cheap considering I refill it myself, however the R200 and R220 is no longer sold, the new R260 has a new ink system. There is upper models also, the r300, r320, r800, im surprised HP printers dont support user defined settings, Anyone know if other Epson printer models support user defined settings? such as their CX series.

Epson does have glossy on a roll but it costs around $60, would be nice to try out. You can run tests with standard size paper, just print on it and stick it behind your plexiglass, see how it looks with the light shining through. I have some genuine Epson glossy paper somewhere ill have to see if its any different.

I want to try laminating one, for protection mostly for when I swap one out with another, not sure if laminating will effect the quality any however. I also have some clear coat spray paint I may try out as well.

jWin · « **Reply #27 on:** January 26, 2007, 08:16:23 pm »

added 2 more high res camera photos of the marquee installed, the colors on the last photo is more accurate. Check the end of the tutorial for the photos.

Kaytrim · « **Reply #28 on:** January 27, 2007, 04:21:10 pm »

Man I can't tell if that was printed on paper or by professional shop.

Nice work and thanks for the info.

Darn, My Brother 420N can only go up to 14" as well. I guess that MAME Marquees or Kinkos will be getting my order sometime. I couldn't have done it like this anyway because my marquee is planned to be 10" x 26".

tommyinajar · « **Reply #29 on:** January 31, 2007, 01:50:08 am »

Very nice tutorial, and I've got an R200, plus I got the last one on the newegg link you gave for .99 + 5$ shipping to boot !!

Thanks!

jWin · « **Reply #30 on:** January 31, 2007, 03:35:19 am »

wow .99 cents, wonder why they reduced it to a dollar, that was a super deal.


Main	Restorations	Software	Audio/Jukebox/MP3	Everything Else	Buy/Sell/Trade
Project Announcements	Monitor/Video	GroovyMAME	Merit/JVL Touchscreen	Meet Up	Retail Vendors
Driving & Racing	Woodworking	Software Support Forums	Consoles	Project Arcade	Reviews
Automated Projects	Artwork	Frontend Support Forums	Pinball	Forum Discussion	Old Boards
Raspberry Pi & Dev Board	controls.dat	Linux	Miscellaneous Arcade	Wiki Discussion	Old Archives
Lightguns	Arcade1Up	Try the site in https mode		Site News


Unread posts \| New Replies \| Recent posts \| Rules \| Chatroom \| Wiki \| File Repository \| RSS \| Submit news