Article: Custom Case Decals

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CUSTOM CASE DECALS

For the longest time, PC users have had to put up with boring beige boxes. The Macintosh crowd have had colours and designs for every day of the week, but the PC has always been boring.
Thankfully, this is changing. With such inventions as the Clear PC, we are finally getting the styling that we have always craved. But what can you do if you already own a beige box? There have been hundreds of articles on painting your case, but today we're going to try something a little different. A custom case decal - on the cheap. The only equipment you'll need is:

Scalpel/Craft Knife
Permanent Marker Pen (Fine Nib)
Sellotape/Masking Tape
A printer attached to your computer

Once you've gathered all your tools, you need to decide what image you want to put on your case. Try to look for simple line art drawings - the simpler, the better. The beauty of this process is you don't need any artistic ability to do it; you're simply going to be tracing the image.
The original image

I found a rather nice image of a 'What Now?' dragon from an old copy of Dragon Magazine. This had everything we're looking for - simple, bold lines, single colour...
I scanned the picture in and loaded up my favourite image editing application. If you *are* going to add colour to your image, it's worth trying it out in the paint programme before you actually commit anything to ink. I edited the image to remove the bits I didn't want, and played around with some colour. The final image turned out like this: The edited image

The next step is to print out the image. I find that most midi tower cases look good with a decal of roughly A4 size. Obviously, if you've got a larger case you'll want to increase the size of the decal. Most modern printers (most notably Hewlett Packard) offer a post-print option that allows you to create a 'simulated' A3 print by spanning it across multiple sheets of A4. If you do this, stick the outside edges down, but leave the joining edges so you can lift them to see what you're doing...
Once the decal is printed out, just sellotape it to the case. Make sure you only tape the top part, as you're going to be lifting it up to check how things are going.

Once the image is stuck in the place you want it, get your scalpel and *carefully* go over the lines. Apply enough pressure to cut through the paper and score the paint on the case. Keep lifting the paper and checking that you've gone over all the lines. Take your time over this - if the scalpel slips, you'll wreck your case.

Once all the lines have been scored, lift the paper and go over the score marks with your permanent marker. You can use any colour you want for this, although I find that black works best on light coloured cases. Again, take your time. Permanent ink is difficult to remove from the case if you go wrong! You can probably see that I made a bit of a mess of one wing, but hey; it *was* my first attempt.

Once you're done (and you've allowed the ink to dry), you should end up with something like this. Click on the image to see a larger version.

So, there you have it. How to spruce up an old case for very little cash. If you decide to give this a go, be sure to send piccies to casedecals@lordblacklaw.co.uk and I'll post them up here for all to see!

-Blacklaw
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