Labels (SNES)

[mavrick]

Lets say you have a few games without labels, damaged labels, or just labels which have something wrong with them and you need to reprint them. I spent a few hours making some replacement labels for a few games (so far) of which I tried to be faithful to the original but lack of high resolution art was a problem.

Anyways I'm going to head into town on monday to get these printed and I was curious as to how I should have that done. I read that there is 'sticker photo paper' that works good?

Here is the two labels I have done so far, and I plan to update this post with any new ones I make (ive about 20 games that have damaged labels, ebay shoppers are so picky about stuff).

NHL 98 (yea yea, why bother, cheap game blah blah)
http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/4904/nhl98snes.th.jpg (http://img152.imageshack.us/i/nhl98snes.jpg/)

Super Mario World (USA) (Proper Purple Bar, Not Red, Oopse)
http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/2084/supermarioworldusa.th.jpg (http://img513.imageshack.us/i/supermarioworldusa.jpg/)

Any thoughts? The images are 300dpi, which should be good enough for printing.

[shadowkn55]

Looks nice. Where do you get the hi-res source pictures for these labels? Scans of existing labels?

[mavrick]

Looks nice. Where do you get the hi-res source pictures for these labels? Scans of existing labels?

Some of the images I am able to pull off the original label, if its not too badly damaged. I crank the scanner up to 600 dpi and do the scan, then scale it down to 300 so it doesnt look weird. Also I search google till i find something that would look good, and is high enough resolution. The one from NHL I cheated on because I used the PS1 cover and just cropped out the part where it says Playstation.

For logo's i just find them on google. I was inspired off of 'the cover project' for the Rydia version of Final Fantasy 4 below.

Final Fantasy IV (Rydia Label)
http://img697.imageshack.us/img697/7781/finalfantasy4usav2.th.jpg (http://img697.imageshack.us/i/finalfantasy4usav2.jpg/)

Final Fantasy IV (White Logo Label)
http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/2480/finalfantasy4usav1.th.jpg (http://img705.imageshack.us/i/finalfantasy4usav1.jpg/)

[Zthun]

Looks nice. Where do you get the hi-res source pictures for these labels? Scans of existing labels?

You can find some at thecoverproject.net, but they don't have a lot of cart labels (mostly box labels). As far as a good web host that has a bunch of them (really hi res 300+ dpi), I'm still looking for one. There's a few genesis ones that I can use myself.

[mavrick]

I use thecoverproject.net for my plastic boxes (which should arrive soon) and plan to have a few of these labels printed to see how they work out. In so far, 300 DPI is good enough, unless there is a real reason to go higher?

Just the label I printed on my home printer (MFC-465CN) looked good. Too bad it was on paper and not on sticker photo paper.

I don't have any genesis games (yet) though when i find some decent lots cheap enough i plan to do some bidding.

If anyone has any requests for the SNES games I can probably help out.

[Cauterize]

Just a quick bit of advice, get some anti-aliasing on those fonts to make them look alot nicer :)

[mavrick]

Just a quick bit of advice, get some anti-aliasing on those fonts to make them look alot nicer :)

Wow I never noticed the fonts till you mentioned it. Im thinking about changing the layout a little and making the labels white, instead of black.

Anyone know if there is a good spraypaint for painting carts white? If I ever finish this first game (Legend of Zelda: Parallel Worlds) I want to paint the case white so that its obvious as to what are repro's and what are originals. Also, I like the white case I saw from that 'spy vs spy 2' for NES someone did.

[darkslime]

Anyone know if there is a good spraypaint for painting carts white? If I ever finish this first game (Legend of Zelda: Parallel Worlds) I want to paint the case white so that its obvious as to what are repro's and what are originals. Also, I like the white case I saw from that 'spy vs spy 2' for NES someone did.Use spray paint made for plastics, I got a can of blue for like $6 at KMart a couple months ago.

Those are some pretty cool labels OP. And glossy sticker paper is the best way to print em. It'd probably be cheaper to just buy some on ebay and stick it in your own printer.

[jb143]

Some of the images I am able to pull off the original label, if its not too badly damaged. I crank the scanner up to 600 dpi and do the scan, then scale it down to 300 so it doesnt look weird. Also I search google till i find something that would look good, and is high enough resolution. The one from NHL I cheated on because I used the PS1 cover and just cropped out the part where it says Playstation.

For logo's i just find them on google. I was inspired off of 'the cover project' for the Rydia version of Final Fantasy 4 below.


I wish more people did high resolution scans like that, most of the scans I find on the web are a mess.

Another tip for text, logos and such, add "vector" to the google image search. Then you won't get any scanning artifacts.

As for printing the labels this thread comes to mind...
http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?t=115468&

[mavrick]

I tried putting various text effects on the fonts but they do little to improve it. Unless someone has a good font for the title (top part of the cart) then im stuck with it as is. Im assuming that when printed, the font will smooth its self out since its such a high dpi.

Unless someone knows away to get the font night and straight?

[shadowkn55]

If you are still taking requests, I'd like to get a label for this sfx demo.

http://eludevisibility.org/power-slide-sfx-1994-12-04-europe/

[mavrick]

Well I decided to give it a try and do a quick print and....

Instead of getting a label, I got a huge picture that took up the entire page. Is there something i need to do prior to printing so that it comes out at the right size? The psd is 300 dpi, printed directly.

[shadowkn55]

You need to resize it before printing. If you use irfanview, it'll give you several nice printing options as well as a preview based on the paper size you selected.

[mavrick]

Hmm, wouldnt know the snes cart label size would you? I figured if i printed from 300 dpi, the image would look alot nicer than say printing from 72dpi.

[mavrick]

If you are still taking requests, I'd like to get a label for this sfx demo.

Having absolutely nothing to work from besides a website and a name I pieced this together. Im a bit nervous since I've never done a label based on nothing, most work resembles the original so...

http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/7301/powerslidesfxsnesunl.th.jpg (http://img198.imageshack.us/i/powerslidesfxsnesunl.jpg/)http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/2851/finalfantasy4usared.th.jpg (http://img34.imageshack.us/i/finalfantasy4usared.jpg/)

I used images found on google, and had i a high enough resolution image of the makers of the game they would be on it. Any comments?

[badinsults]

I've done up about 75 labels myself like that. Low resolution versions of them are on my website, but I have all the ones I have photoshopped saved as png at 300 dpi. Perhaps we could collaborate?

[mavrick]

I sent ya a pm, hope you dont mind. :)