RE: Vectrex controller overlay hacking

From: Kristopher Sandrick <300zx_at_one.net>
Date: Wed Aug 08 2001 - 00:49:21 EDT

> By the way, I worked out why my screen overlays didn't look very
> good - it's
> because printers don't print opaque colours and can't print in white.
>
> The borders of the overlays and all the text really need an opaque white
> backing to make them visible from the front. I suspect the real ones
> must have something like this - maybe stuck to the back of the film?
> (You can tell I've still never seen a real one to know what it is I'm
> supposed to be cloning...)
>
> I contemplated getting white ink (if such a thing exists) and printing
> an opaque background on the other side in white, but I'm not even going
> to try because I don't know any way I can align a piece of paper through
> a printer well enough to have the two printings match up exactly.

Actually, what might work better would be a hybrid process using some of the
techniques described here:
http://members.nbci.com/kingofpayne/reproplastics.htm for creating repros of
pin plastics. (Recently did a run of opto encoders using the pin process,
worked very well!
http://www.playertwo.com/temp/starrider/steering_encoder_work.jpg) Though
the usage, even basic ideas are a bit different between the two, possible
some steps can be taken from each process to come up with a good, solid home
overlay process.

Essentially, a home inkjet printer doesn't print white for the same reason
it doesn't print at full opacity, as it's expecting to output on an opaque
white medium, correct? (Just like standard four-color print process.) In
the case of the pin plastics, the white portions get their appearance from a
coat of white paint on the backside of the plastic. (More like the
arbitrary colors possible through screen printing.) Possible that something
akin to this is what's missing from the overlays?

Forgive the ramblings, just trying to inject ideas into the mix...

Very respectfully,
Kristopher Sandrick

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Received on Tue Aug 7 21:52:00 2001

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