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I am building the airfix a300 in monarch colours and am not sure which font is required ( if non commercially available I print my own )

Does anyone know of a programme that would let me type Monarch into it and then be able to view "Monarch" in different fonts?

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I am building the airfix a300 in monarch colours and am not sure which font is required ( if non commercially available I print my own )

Does anyone know of a programme that would let me type Monarch into it and then be able to view "Monarch" in different fonts?

I assume you're talking about a 1970s/80s Monarch scheme?? If so, they used Helvetica Black for the title.

J

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I assume you're talking about a 1970s/80s Monarch scheme?? If so, they used Helvetica Black for the title.

J

Jennings, thanks for info, my a300 is in the 2002 scheme and since raising the topic I trawled through " word" and it looks like it is now helvetica black for 2002, however I did not word my query very well, I did in fact find what appears to be the correct font quite quickly because helvetica black is near the top of the "word" font list but if an airline uses an obscure font it could take ages to trawl through to find the corrct font. hence the query to see if a programme exists to show my chosen words in different fonts, thanks,

hugo

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hence the query to see if a programme exists to show my chosen words in different fonts, thanks,

Hugo,

Google "AMP font viewer" and download the free version - it's what I use.

Scott.

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A font viewer won't help, as it's not a font. It's a modified font, but it's not standard. Do you have a vector based art program like Illustrator? If so, I can send you the lettering, or point you to a download of it as a vector file.

J

scott and jennings, many thanks for help and advice, have cracked the monarch problem using crafty clear decal paper but i am still trying to track down a program ( if one exists) so that i can change, for example " the quick brown fox etc" to, for example "Northwest airlines"

hugo

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How about buying a set of 'Draw Decals' Monarch B757/A321 and using the titles of that? If you think it's a little small I guess you could scan and resize them?

http://www.aviationmegastore.com/?shopid=L...0&art=42619

I used a set of Draw Decals for the A321 when I did this a couple of years back.

154337024.jpg

154337021.jpg

154337018.jpg

Good luck with the wavy lines -they was fun!

Edited by BAC
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I have absolutely no idea what a vector file is. :huh:

Can someone explain?

Cheers.

As opposed to an image file like a JPEG, a GIF, or a TIFF. Those are rasterized images (photographs, for lack of a better term) made up of pixels. You can't do anything with them. A vector based program uses anchor points and connecting lines to draw things. This is what is used to produce decal art. It's sort of analogous to the difference between painting something on a piece of paper with a brush and paints, vs drawing something with a pencil and a ruler. I can erase the pencil line and re-draw it infinitely. I can't do that once the paint is on the paper. Here's a primer if you're interested:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vector_graphics

Meantime, try this and see if it works for you:

Monarch.jpg

J

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Thanks for the explaination!

So, in our modelling use would you take a photo of an airliner and then use this Vectoring to stretch/skew it etc to produce an image to make into a 'sharp' decal?

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Thanks for the explaination!

So, in our modelling use would you take a photo of an airliner and then use this Vectoring to stretch/skew it etc to produce an image to make into a 'sharp' decal?

There are a number of ways you can do things. Typically, I try to draw an accurate side view of the airplane (I try to start from factory station diagrams, etc so that it's as close to 100% accurate as I can get it). I then draw whatever logos, lettering, stripes, etc are necessary. If possible, I try to get actual measurements of the stuff and scale it down accordingly. I tend not to use fonts, or if I do, I typically turn them into outlines (vector objects) so that I can modify them to match exactly the style used on the airplane. That's the case with Monarch (above). It's similar to a couple of commercial fonts, but exactly like none. In this particular case, I ended up just drawing each letter by hand to get them right. I only use photos as tracing templates or for reference. The vector program can't do anything with a photograph (since it's a rasterized image).

When things like stripes have to wrap around a 3D part of the airplane (like when stripes wrap under the tail or around the nose), I print out my stripes, lay them on the model, burnish down tape as tightly as possible on the nose/tail, and then with a sharp drafting pencil sketch the way the lines follow the contours. I then scan this, bring it in as a template (as you would do with a light table or tracing paper in hand drafting) and trace over it to get the 3D shape into 2D.

One then adds the colors required (silkscreen printing uses "spot" colors, not mixed colors like CMYK or RGB), and prepares the 'traps' for use in silkscreen printing (check Wikipedia - it's far too complicated to explain here), then sends it off to the printer.

J

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Brandsoftheworld.com is good, but not all of their files are created equal. And note that these are vector art files, so if you don't have Adobe Illustrator or something similar, you won't be able to do anything with them. Some of the logos on there are pretty awful, but many are very good.

J

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Thanks for the explaination!

So, in our modelling use would you take a photo of an airliner and then use this Vectoring to stretch/skew it etc to produce an image to make into a 'sharp' decal?

jennings, thanks for the monarch upload,

hugo

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