A couple of years ago, I purchased a color ceramic decal printer from a local company. The printer was pretty pricey, so to help offset the expense, I decided to sell custom ceramic decals to other artists. By far, the biggest issue for potters is how to format a ceramic decal sheet using Photoshop or another photo editing program.
I offer graphic design services to people who want or need assistance, but, many people want to format their decal sheets themselves. In the end, I decided that it would be easier if I did a few video tutorials on how to format ceramic decals.
The first tutorial up is my photo software of choice – Adobe Photoshop. I use Photoshop CS 5 and 6 – but it looks like Adobe offers most of their programs by subscription now via the cloud.
How to format ceramic decal sheet using Photoshop
So, without further ado, here is my quick video on how I format ceramic decal sheets using Photoshop. This video is by no means the only way to format a sheet of custom ceramic decals, but is one I use frequently. My goal is to format a sheet that has as many images as possible on a sheet. I also want each image to have at least an 1/8″ spaced border so that cutting the decals is easy.
Using your own artwork
This tutorial assumes that you know how to scan your artwork and save it to a place on your computer. Please let me know if you would like a tutorial on how to scan artwork.
My preferred file types to print custom decals are .jpg, .tiff, .pdf. Files need to be a high resolution, preferably 300 dpi so that no quality is lost. Keep in mind that my ceramic decal printer uses food safe ceramic toners. Many brighter colors print and fire duller than what is shown on your screen. Visit my Custom Ceramic Decal Page for more information.
In the near future, I will be offering tutorials on how format ceramic decal using GIMP and other free image tools.
To purchase a custom color or black and white ceramic decal sheet, please visit Ceramicscapes’ Etsy Shop.
If there is any part of the video that doesn’t make sense, please let me know in the comments. I will attempt to clarify and update the video.
