Sign Making App or On-Line Tool

I use CorelDraw. It's pretty simple!

Word or PowerPoint will also work.

Thanks Guys. I have also tried Word and powerpoint. Her is my dilemma. I have jpg graphic a packing crate sign that is approximate 8 x 5.5 inches and includes a graphic of some strawberries. I can easily resize to the needed 7.5 x 1.5 inch sign on Brennan's Hap Hazard Packing Company model that I am building. It works well in word or power point but the strawberries are distorted (stretched) too much. My thought was to crop out the strawberries and rescale them separately and then place 2 proportional bunches on the sign instead of the one that is stretched too much.

Any ideas?

K.K.,

Do the individual letters get stretched in the same way as the strawberries?  If so, you're increasing/decreasing one dimension more than the other.  Funny how toy train designers also do this (selective expansion/compression) with "Scale" models, in three dimensions instead of two,  in order to get "Traditional" ones.

There is no problem with doing it with your sign except that the strawberries also undergo the same transformation at the same time.  If you like the letters stretched, but not the strawberries, then you'll have to do the strawberries separately, as you mentioned.

You're right on target.

Regarding tools I prefer PowerPoint, but that's probably because I've used it several times a week for 35 years now as part of my job, way back to Windows 286/386, i.e. Windows 2.0.  There are better tools, like CorelDraw as mentioned by @AlanRail, but they're an extra cost and are not as freely available if you already have Office, and they have to be learned.

Mike

This can be done using Powerpoint but you have to lock the x-y proportionals to eliminate distortion.  This is all far easier to do in Photoshop.

However, there are on-line photo editing sites that are both free and very easy to use.

Try: https://www.online-image-editor.com/

There are many others...

@Mellow Hudson Mike posted:

Regarding tools I prefer PowerPoint, but that's probably because I've used it several times a week for 35 years now as part of my job, way back to Windows 286/386, i.e. Windows 2.0.  Mike

Mike,

I have a similar experience as you.  Started with a 286 running DOS and Harvard Graphics with Draw Partner.  I remember when my 386 showed up with Windows.  It was the most powerful computer in the office with a 20MB hard drive with a 5.25" AND 3.5" floppy disk drives.  Whoo Hoo, I was livin' large.  I remember thinking I would never need another computer ever again.  Boy was I wrong.

I agree with the others KnobKnee.  Hold the shift key while resizing.  That will keep proportions the same all around.  Else, break it in two.  If you are having trouble still, send me an email and I will be glad to help.

Ron

Thanks guys. I'll give these options a try.

I would suggest Inkscape.... free, vector based drawing.  Lots of features and easy to learn.

Thanks again for your suggestions. I used PP but still can't stretch the graphic enough to fill the sign board without distorting the strawberries too much. Instead I resized proportionally and will change the sign board to fit the graphic. I normally use IrfanView to view photos and graphics and it does have many tools to edit and crop graphics files.

@KnobKnee posted:

Thanks again for your suggestions. I used PP but still can't stretch the graphic enough to fill the sign board without distorting the strawberries too much. Instead I resized proportionally and will change the sign board to fit the graphic. I normally use IrfanView to view photos and graphics and it does have many tools to edit and crop graphics files.

Do you mind if I give it a try?  I love a challenge.  Just email me the graphic and the size of the signboard you want it to be.  Email is in my profile.

Ron

@Ron045 posted:

Mike,

I have a similar experience as you.  Started with a 286 running DOS and Harvard Graphics with Draw Partner.  I remember when my 386 showed up with Windows.  It was the most powerful computer in the office with a 20MB hard drive with a 5.25" AND 3.5" floppy disk drives.  Whoo Hoo, I was livin' large.  I remember thinking I would never need another computer ever again.  Boy was I wrong.

Ron,

Whenever I start thinking back to the early days of personal computing I start feeling really old.  Windows 286/386 is just one example.

While the addition of fresh technology into our model railroading hobby in the last 25 or so years is hard for some to deal with*, I find the OGR Forum to generally be a safe haven from the fear of "getting old" due to technological change -- unlike almost any recent forum on computers or smartphones or software.

In an odd way 120 years or more of history with our hobby, as we watch it age gracefully, helps.

Thank goodness we have this sanctuary.

Mike

* What we often forget in our hobby is, and always has been, a hobby of learning and growth and that new things have been entering it continuously from the beginning.  In each case, at the time of their introduction, these new things were every bit new technologies.  Consequently we are, and always have been, technological leaders too.  Maybe not as fancy or as rapid as computers or software, but just as important over our long history to teaching people about technologies, and giving them technical skills that lead to a better future.  (Because of this I would argue that our railroading hobby was a key player in the progression to what what we now call STEM, and can still play a strong role within STEM to this day.)

If any of you are modeling the Pennsylvania Railroad, THIS SITE provides a way to make any PRR sign you want...like this!

With or without the keystone...

@mwb posted:

This can be done using Powerpoint but you have to lock the x-y proportionals to eliminate distortion.  This is all far easier to do in Photoshop.

Using Word or Power Point to make images is using the wrong tool. They are not designed for that purpose.

Photoshop is a much better and easier way to make signs and other graphics. If you don't want to buy Photoshop, there are other, PS clones available for free.

I use Photoshop almost every day. KnobKnee, if you will send me the images you are trying to use, I'd be happy to take a look and see what I can do for you. It may be possible to cut the strawberries out from the original graphic, put them on a separate layer, resize the rest of it, and still have the berries look correct. There are lots of "tricks of the trade" I can do in Photoshop.

No doubt that a photoshop tool is super powerful and effective.  But sometimes you don't need a Ferrari when going out to buy milk.

Done with PowerPoint.  Emailed KnobKnee the PPT file and a png file.

Also, As a point of continuing education here on the forum, PowerPoint is one word, not two.

Have Fun!

Ron

  Thanks for the Pennsy sign link !

Thanks Ron. The sign looks great. I'll post some photos here when I get the sign installed on the packing company model.

so once i designed the sign  i needed to make it.

using two-tone acrylic RED OVER YELLOW  I laser cut the sign engraving the parts that are yellow leaving the unengraved parts red.

@AlanRail posted:

so once i designed the sign  i needed to make it.

using two-tone acrylic RED OVER YELLOW  I laser cut the sign engraving the parts that are yellow leaving the unengraved parts red.

That sounds really cool.  Do you have any pictures?

this is the CorelDraw created .svg file; yellow parts; engraved red scored ; and black cut.

some of the clear plastic film has yet to be removed but you get the idea