Japanese advertising signs for Buildings in N Scale.

[Sascha]

Hello. I'm want to put different advertising on my billboard, and also on windows, but cant find pictures that are small enough.

Is there a sticker package I can get, or websites, so I can print it out?

[kvp]

It's possible to rescale any image. The most simple way without image editing skills is to paste them into Word and use the ruler on top (in print preview) to resize the image to the required size by grabbing the bottom right corner. (Measure the mini billboard before with a ruler.)

[inobu]

Hello. I'm want to put different advertising on my billboard, and also on windows, but cant find pictures that are small enough.

Is there a sticker package I can get, or websites, so I can print it out?

 

Sascha,

 

There are a few variables that effect the way images are printed out. This will help you achieve your task .

 

You will find two types of images Bit Map and Vector based images. These file types plays an important role in the printing and the end results is based on how the images were produces.

 

Jpeg's are bit maps and AI or EPS are vector.

 

BIt maps are dots of different colors that makes up a particular images.

 

Here are two files that were scaled down

 

Vector base images are coordinates that define a shape and that area is filled with dots.  

 

This best describes what it looks like.

 

 

Your problem will start when you try scale down a jpeg or bitmap image. The program will start throwing out the pixels (dots) to make the image smaller resulting in pixelization which is what you see in the blue. You printer will then replicate that dot formation and the image will look bad. 

 

Vector images won't have that problem as much.

 

Here are two files. The sony file is a vector base pdf and the other Sanyo is a jpeg. Print them out an compare. The Sony is clearer because its vector. 

 

So, it's easier to create your own images based on the type of files you find and use just make sure its vector.

 

Inobu. 

 

 

Free graphic program Vector base

Sony Music.pdf

Edited August 20, 2016 by inobu

[cteno4]

Sasha,

 

Not a lot out there commercially other than the sticker and decal sets that come with various building models. Part of this I'm sure is licensing as that could be dicy with some loving their signs used others protecting their logos etc in commercial situations.

 

I always scan these to have backups if I want to print out more or manipulate them. If you don't have a scanner you can get a decent digital file (bit mapped) by taking a digital photo of it as close as you can in focus. Then you can print it out on sticker paper or just photo paper and glue them down once cut up.

 

You can also find pictures of real buildings with signs on them (gobs on google image searches). The problem here can be two fold; one getting images big enough to have enough resolution print out the sign in the picture decently at the resolution you want, and second getting the image square as they are usually not taken perfectly head on and therefore will be out of perspective and a trapezoidal shaped. You can correct this in graphics software to try and force them back flat and head on. It won't get the parallax perfect, but usually close enough and it will degrade the image a tad, but if big enough a photo and you can reduce it after straightening and sharpen it a tad you can bring it out pretty well. It takes some fiddling in the software, but not horrid and just takes a little practice. There is great free bit map software out there called GIMP. It has the tools to straighten out, sharpen, brighten and contrast edit digital Picts.

 

I've looked in magazines and such for potential ads and logos to use but not much. You can find some high res logos (sometimes even vector art) for companies on their websites, but it can take digging and it's usually just the logo.

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

[JR 500系]

Like KVP san has mentioned, I too use words to rescale the pictures. Firstly, I download the ad signs I want from the internet, like these:

 

 

 

 

Thereafter, I use a ruler to measure the exact size of the billboards to be placed on...

 

Then paste the pictures on the words document, and then use the absolute size function on words to scale them down to exactly the same size as the billboard you have measured.

 

I then re-arrange them properly so I can get the maximum number of them into one A4 size decal sheet... Thereafter, I print the document out on a A4 decal sheet, cut them out and just paste them on the billboards:

 

 

 

 

Viola! Home-made signs to your liking!

 

Hoped that helps! Have fun!

[Sascha]

Thanks for all the tips. Now lets see what I can find!!!

[Sascha]

I think it came out pretty well. What do y'all think?

Edited September 5, 2016 by Sascha

[inobu]

That's it !!!!

 

Inobu

[cteno4]

Kudos Sasha! Excellent!

 

Hints on where you sourced your images?

 

Jeff

[Sascha]

Kudos Sasha! Excellent!

 

Hints on where you sourced your images?

 

Jeff

First I googled 'Japanese Advertising' and clicked on images. If I found one I liked I clicked on it, so that it expanded and showed me other images,and the 'more related images 'button. I did the same with the word Advertising in Japanese Kanji on Google.com and Google.co.jp.

[Sascha]

Thanks again for all the help y'all.

[bill937ca]

Excellent! Certainly a step above endless tiny stickers.

[Drunkenclam]

Fantastic. Going to look into this. I would like on mine to print on a clear sheet and mount it on an el sheet. I also want to have a hostess bar with a neon sign outside from thin el wire. Was thinking about calling it Honey as the katakana would read the same from both sides.

 

ハ

二

ー

 

I would prefer bunny. But the バ would be harder to do

[JR 500系]

Wow Sacha that one looks really good! The effect came out nice ~ Good to see a large advertisement sign! Perhaps I will try one too ~

[keiichi77]

 

Although not meant to be an exact replica of a particular building that I am sure most people on the forum will recognize, I wanted a modern Otaku culture type building on my layout. I used the Kato Broadcast building as a starting point as it was close enough to my eyes, I had the ugly green one so no loss for me ;). The building was easy to modify, trying to find decent images to use was much more difficult and took weeks of searching. Thanks to Sascha for mentioning Gimp, it worked great to flatten and square off the large banners, which I could only find taken on an angle. For now the large banners will have to do but I am hoping to find better resolution images, especially for Love Live banner in the front. I ordered some LEDs to light up the large banners like the prototype building has, and I plan on doing some kind of an interior for the ground floor. I would like to get some Kobaru UFO catchers for the doorways but they are currently out of stock. I have a few paint touch ups here and there from over spray of the white on red and red on white. Anyway what do you think? Comments/criticism is welcome.

 

Edited September 21, 2016 by keiichi77

[cteno4]

Criticism: it's too damn good!

 

Comments: Kudos!

 

Will be fun to see what you do with the LEDs!

 

Jeff

[Sascha]

Looks awesome. I want to do the Sega one too. Please post one when you got the LEDs installed.

[keiichi77]

Thanks cteno, one is always critical of their own work.  I plan on doing another building from Akihabara using a cheap Chinese building as a starting point, but I won't be starting that one soon, I bought the building a month ago and just got the email today that it was shipped.  I would also like to make a model of the Labi building, it would have to be a scratch build, my brain is still trying to figure out what to use for the window tubing. ;)

[JR 500系]

Oh wow it looks so good! definitely adds in the Otaku culture!

[Drunkenclam]

Does anyone recommend a program or website to convert bitmap to vector. Some of the ones I looked at and huge licensing costs or the free website ones, I couldn't open or view the downloaded versions. Or it might be I don't have the right software to open the downloads.

[cteno4]

Clam,

 

While vector images are great as you can rescale them and get clean lines at all sizes, its not easy to turn most bit mapped pictures into a vector image. Most vector image programs have an auto trace function but on any complex picture it will give you wire a mess of very complex vector lines that it's trying to use to draw the picture with instead of the pixels. You then need to go in and clean them up and the go back in and color spaces in. Really takes a lot of skill and time to do. Even with super simple and clean stuff trying to convert to a nice clean vector is a lot of work. I know I've done it in my work over the years and worked with graphic artist when we have had to recreate vector art lost from a bitmapped copy we had. Sorry it's really not a push the button and done thing.

 

Most signs original art and type are all created in vector programs (vector programs can also handle bitmapped bits within them like photos) but you rarely can get your hands on those files! Few companies will have their logos out there as vector files you can download, but usually the easy find are bitmapped versions or just photos (vast majority of them) of the sign. Vector is great if you can get it, but it's rare you will find vector art of signs like this. Also just because it's in PDF format does not mean it's vector art as PDF can handle bitmapped and vector art in the same document.

 

Luckily for making signs for n scale buildings like this we don't need to do this as most of the bitmapped reference material out there has enough resolution in there to just manipulate the bitmapped picture to crop out the sign and then tweak the perspective to get it looking head on as Sasha and Keiichi did in gimp. If you still need it a bit bigger you can scale it up and the bitmap programs will res it up 50-100% pretty gracefully and then you can tweak it a little with some of the enhance tools to sharpen them up if needed. Of course if you are starting with an image that is 120x80 pixels you won't be able to blow it up to 3" across w.o it looking horrid. Nice thing now is folks are posting larger and larger pictures out there so you have more and more pixels to work with! Alway grab the hugest resolution (largest pixel size) you can find (sites like flicker may offer 5-6 different sizes). Bitmap software is getting better and better at interpolating new pixels as you enlarge your image past its current resolution gracefully. You can even buy specific programs now that can res a bitmap up 2-3 times for printing w.o noticeable degradation.

 

Gimp is the program to start using. It's free and a lot out there on using it to do this sort of stuff. Doesn't take too long to pickup and so the straightening, cleanup and final sizing all as a bitmap.

 

Luckily for us these signs don't have to be ultra fine resolution output as we look at the from a distance and our minds eye says sign and is not looking for ultra resolution printing the way it does if it's looking at a magazine picture 12" away.

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

[gavino200]

Like KVP san has mentioned, I too use words to rescale the pictures. Firstly, I download the ad signs I want from the internet, like these:

 

Ad.jpg

 

Nissin cup noodles.jpg

 

Hokkaido Shinkansen.jpg

 

Thereafter, I use a ruler to measure the exact size of the billboards to be placed on...

 

Then paste the pictures on the words document, and then use the absolute size function on words to scale them down to exactly the same size as the billboard you have measured.

 

I then re-arrange them properly so I can get the maximum number of them into one A4 size decal sheet... Thereafter, I print the document out on a A4 decal sheet, cut them out and just paste them on the billboards:

 

 

20160113_150503.jpg

 

20160113_150523.jpg

 

Viola! Home-made signs to your liking!

 

Hoped that helps! Have fun!

 

This is a great method. Where do you get 'decal paper'? Is there a particular kind you recommend?

[cteno4]

Gavin,

 

You can print signs like this you can use laser or inkjet sticker paper. This gives you white if needed and is easy to cut out and stick on, then usually best to hit with some dull coat to seal it down.

 

You can get white or clear waterslide decal paper for inkjet or laser printers as well. Again the white will give you white in the image if needed, but you need to trim the decal down to just the print area. Clear can be good if it's not a rectangular image and you neeed the background to show thru in some areas but you don't get white in your image (unless your background is white). Loads of choices on Amazon and such.

 

Jeff

[gavino200]

On 3/1/2017 at 9:35 PM, cteno4 said:

Gavin,

 

You can print signs like this you can use laser or inkjet sticker paper. This gives you white if needed and is easy to cut out and stick on, then usually best to hit with some dull coat to seal it down.

 

You can get white or clear waterslide decal paper for inkjet or laser printers as well. Again the white will give you white in the image if needed, but you need to trim the decal down to just the print area. Clear can be good if it's not a rectangular image and you neeed the background to show thru in some areas but you don't get white in your image (unless your background is white). Loads of choices on Amazon and such.

 

Jeff

 

It's been a while since I asked the question. I'm finally getting around to buildings. 

 

This is the stuff you're talking about? Matt finish?

 

https://www.amazon.com/Staples-Matte-White-Sticker-Sheets/dp/B00MD4IYIQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1512019219&sr=8-1&keywords=paper+sticker

[cteno4]

Gavin,

 

seller says it will print with both inkjet and laserprint. You can also use regular printer papers and mount wirh glues if you want to be sure they stay in place, elsewise a shot with dull coat can lock stickers pretty well in place and seal them.

 

btw if you find any of the paper or sticker print outs are too thick you can also sand down paper much thinner with increasing fine grit sand papers. Takes a little practice to get it even, but you can make them really thin this way.

 

jeff