No Trespassing Decals

[BCR751]

Looking for N-Scale decals of the 'NO TRESPASSING' signs seen on the ends of through-truss bridges.  I need the vertical letter version in white.  I've checked out Microscale and a few other vendors with no success.

Doug

[Spades]

http://www.microscale.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Session_ID=31b5e27f0e44cd4398a063d016f386ec&Screen=PROD&Product_Code=60-924&Store_Code=MD&search=industrial&offset=&filter_cat=&PowerSearch_Begin_Only=&sort=&range_low=&range_high=

Did you look at Microscale 60-294 Industrial Safety & Warning Signs.  Out of stock at Microscale, but you can find it on Ebay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/391806713839?epid=1840432704&hash=item5b397fffef:g:U6YAAOSwq1JZNdAE

[BCR751]

Spades, thanks for the reply but that isn't the one I'm looking for.  The lettering on the bridge ends looks like this:

N
O

T
R
E
S
P
A
S
S
I
N
G

it is applied vertically and centered on the support structure.

Doug

[nkalanaga]

Woodland Scenics used to make, and may still, some very small alphabet dry transfers.  You could use those if you can find them.

[John]

you can roll your own ..

[Maletrain]

you can roll your own ..

But you need to somehow center the "I".  The other letters look OK in vertical format.

[John]

But you need to somehow center the "I".  The other letters look OK in vertical format.

I'm not making any decals - this is just a quick mock up suggestion in M$ paint ..  You could print this on a white decal and get a good effect .. the background could be whatever color the bridge is

[Missaberoad]

There's methods to create inline vertical text in just about every word processor or graphic design program. Not an issue.

[Maletrain]

There's methods to create inline vertical text in just about every word processor or graphic design program. Not an issue.

Having just spent some time trying to find such a method in MS Word and coming up empty, do you know where to find some sort of vertical text option in Word?

[Missaberoad]

A quick google search for "vertical text (program of your choosing)" will also turn up countless videos and tutorials.

[John]

Having just spent some time trying to find such a method in MS Word and coming up empty, do you know where to find some sort of vertical text option in Word?

Search engines are your friend for all things tech  -- google "text direction in word"  - works in powerpoint as well .. I'm sure the other open source programs have similar function

[Maletrain]

OK, I spent some time with that link, and learned quite a few things.  But that presentation is damn annoying, with no explanation in print of speech, saying what is being done, so you need to follow the cursor, which keeps going to a menu bar that is partially obscured by the video title, and is not the same menu bar that is in my version of the Word program.

But, I figured out what they were doing in their 5 examples, and saw that it does not always work to center the letters in the vertical format.  And, sometimes it leaves borders that are hard to eliminate.  And, sometimes it loses the line space between "NO" and "TRESPASSING".

So, these are basically kluges, rather than an actually planned program elements to enable writing vertically with any ease.  Which is annoying, considering that Word had ways to rotate the writing so that it reads along the left or right edge of the page, has reflections, and all sorts of stuff like that.

One thing I did stumble on in the "Method 5", which is to put the letters in individual cells in an Excel worksheet column, is that once you have inserted it into the Word document, when you squeeze or spread the cells horizontally, you actually change the font along with the cell width so that it goes from compressed to expanded font shape.  I was hoping that would be something that would be useful for printing Railroad Roman road names on passenger car letter boards when written horizontally in cell rows.  But, while the condensed font looks smooth, the expanded font looks very pixelated.

OK, time to eat dinner.

[Missaberoad]

@Maletrain keep in mind that video was literally the first result. Like John said use a search engine and you will find hundreds of different tutorials. I'm sure you will find something that works for you.

[peteski]

Corel Draw has all sorts of text manipulation capabilities.  Even if the "center justified" formatting option did not result with what I wanted, I could kern (move around) individual letters.  I could also convert text to curves and manipulate each letter just like any other graphic object in the drawing.

While basic text editors work well for most hobby needs, sometimes it is nice to have a right tool for the job.   Older versions of Corel Draw are fairly inexpensive, or a freeware program called Inkscape has Corel Draw type capabilities.

[Maletrain]

@Maletrain keep in mind that video was literally the first result. Like John said use a search engine and you will find hundreds of different tutorials. I'm sure you will find something that works for you.

I did get what I needed from that video, it was just annoying to use it.

The "5 ways" were:

1.  Use another line for each letter (and space), use the center format for text on lines, and adjust vertical spacing between lines.  This ends up in the center of the page.

2.  Use a table, with one column and 14 rows, one for each letter and the space.  Supposedly, you can center the letters in the cells, but that seemed to not always work. 

3.  Use a text box.  Manipulate its shape to force all letters onto separate lines.

4.  Use "Word Art" from the text box, with manipulation to get words vertical.

5. Use an Excel spreadsheet insert, one letter per cell, and manipulate the text centering in the cells.

The last 4 approaches allow you to place the results anywhere on the page, so you are able to make multiple copies side-by-side.

What is really annoying is that it does not always work the same way in different versions of Word, much less different word processors.

But, if you start with an approach and keep trying to figure out the interface, particularly where the various features are hiding in non-first-level menus, it seems possible to get what you want into vertical format.

So, at least I now know a "somehow" to center that "I", like I said was needed in my first post.  So, thanks for the pointers.