Overlay Printing

[Brockolye]

I need to know detailed instructions on how to print gameplay size overlays, in other words overlays I could actually print from my computer, cut out, slide in my colceco vision controller, and play with. If such a way exists, can someone please let me know? I tried printing the 2 overlay files on this site on photo paper and unfortunately, you can only print the overlays as single files, meaning you have 4 overlays on one page and 5 on the other page when you print them out. You can't print each overlay by itself ( 9 overlays total). When you right click a single overlay in the file and click "Save As", it still saves them all as 1 file and therefore must be printed as 1 file. I tried multiple sizes with multiple kinds of paper and can't get the size right. To give you a better idea of what I mean, I've attached the two files that contain the 9 overlays I'm wanting to print and use for gameplay. If anyone could help with printing these particular 9 Colecovision overlays (attached) and any other existing overlays for that matter, it would be greatly appreciated.

[Brockolye]

I need to know detailed instructions on how to print gameplay size overlays, in other words overlays I could actually print from my computer, cut out, slide in my colceco vision controller, and play with. If such a way exists, can someone please let me know? I tried printing the 2 overlay files on this site on photo paper and unfortunately, you can only print the overlays as single files, meaning you have 4 overlays on one page and 5 on the other page when you print them out. You can't print each overlay by itself ( 9 overlays total). When you right click a single overlay in the file and click "Save As", it still saves them all as 1 file and therefore must be printed as 1 file. I tried multiple sizes with multiple kinds of paper and can't get the size right. To give you a better idea of what I mean, I've attached the two files that contain the 9 overlays I'm wanting to print and use for gameplay. If anyone could help with printing these particular 9 Colecovision overlays (attached) and any other existing overlays for that matter, it would be greatly appreciated.

 

BTW...I just wanted a temporary set to use for the time being. Not trying to copy someone else's work to sell or anything like that.

 

Luc,

 

Later on, when you get these printed on actual plastic or whatever overlays are made of, I will definitely buy at least one set of each of them from you.

[Pixelboy]

I need to know detailed instructions on how to print gameplay size overlays, in other words overlays I could actually print from my computer, cut out, slide in my colceco vision controller, and play with. If such a way exists, can someone please let me know? I tried printing the 2 overlay files on this site on photo paper and unfortunately, you can only print the overlays as single files, meaning you have 4 overlays on one page and 5 on the other page when you print them out. You can't print each overlay by itself ( 9 overlays total). When you right click a single overlay in the file and click "Save As", it still saves them all as 1 file and therefore must be printed as 1 file. I tried multiple sizes with multiple kinds of paper and can't get the size right. To give you a better idea of what I mean, I've attached the two files that contain the 9 overlays I'm wanting to print and use for gameplay. If anyone could help with printing these particular 9 Colecovision overlays (attached) and any other existing overlays for that matter, it would be greatly appreciated.

 

BTW...I just wanted a temporary set to use for the time being. Not trying to copy someone else's work to sell or anything like that.

 

Luc,

 

Later on, when you get these printed on actual plastic or whatever overlays are made of, I will definitely buy at least one set of each of them from you.

These custom overlays were created according to eColeco's specs, back when they offered such an overlay printing service. They do not offer that service anymore. If I do get my custom overlays printed again, I will probably need to redo them, at a different size and perhaps even to reduce the number of colors. Depends what company (or individual) ends up printing them on mylar.

[Mirage]

You can't print each overlay by itself ( 9 overlays total). When you right click a single overlay in the file and click "Save As", it still saves them all as 1 file and therefore must be printed as 1 file.

 

Regarding just this part... if I understand correctly... just open the image (of 4 or 5 overlays), crop it to just one, and save as a new file. Repeat for each one until you have 9 separate images (one for each overlay). Then just print at 100% (assuming these are 100% of actual size). I can't tell you how to crop, as I don't know what software you're using, and I only use either Photoshop or Lightroom, so I wouldn't know how with any other software anyway, especially if it's Windows. I'm sure your manual or a help file could tell you how to though.

[Brockolye]

Thanks guys for the replies! This info is much appreciated and it pretty much clears up the issue.

[Brockolye]

You can't print each overlay by itself ( 9 overlays total). When you right click a single overlay in the file and click "Save As", it still saves them all as 1 file and therefore must be printed as 1 file.

 

Regarding just this part... if I understand correctly... just open the image (of 4 or 5 overlays), crop it to just one, and save as a new file. Repeat for each one until you have 9 separate images (one for each overlay). Then just print at 100% (assuming these are 100% of actual size). I can't tell you how to crop, as I don't know what software you're using, and I only use either Photoshop or Lightroom, so I wouldn't know how with any other software anyway, especially if it's Windows. I'm sure your manual or a help file could tell you how to though.

 

Hey I really appreciate the help. I tried cropping to one, and save as a new file but when I did, it still saves all 5 overlays as 1 file. When I right click a single image, it doesn't give me the option to save as. Also, I downloaded photoshop and I couln't upload these overlays files. My guess is photoshop doesn't support .png format. I tried googling .png file extension to see what programs you could upload files to and all the programs I saw, you have to buy. I'd prefer to just find a program I can download to my computer and then upload the photo so I can edit. If I missed anything, please let me know. Thanks again for your help.

[Mirage]

Photoshop does support PNG format, so it seems my ability to help sort of ends right there, because then I don't know what the problem is. You should just open the PNG in Photoshop, choose the crop tool, use it to draw a crop window around what you want (one of the overlays), hit enter (making sure the crop settings in the crop settings are cleared first), then Save As a new image.

 

Unless you have a trial version of Photoshop, and maybe that doesn't support PNG? I don't know, I have full version of CS4.

 

Aside from that, I don't think you mentioned what sort of computer you have, so I can't help you too much specifically with other software, but I'll make a couple guesses anyway. If you are on a Mac, I would say to open the PNG in Preview, draw a selection around one of the overlays, hit CMD-K to crop, then save as a new PNG. If you're on Windows, someone else will probably need to help with a software to do it because I don't do Windows. It should be pretty much the same for any software though. My best guess is to try downloading GIMP (it's free), and the procedure to crop and save I would think would be pretty similar to Photoshop, and I'd be shocked if GIMP doesn't support PNG format.

 

Anything else I can do would unfortunately require either more info, or for me to be sitting there to see what's wrong. Sorry, I just have no idea beyond that.

[Ze_ro]

I've never tried this myself, but I heard these instructions a long time ago for making relatively high quality Intellivision overlays:

 

1. Using a photo manipulation program, flip the image horizontally.
   
2. Print the image onto an inkjet transparency. These things have a "dull" side and a "shiny" side... since you flipped the image, the overlay should appear though the shiny side of the transparency.
   
3. Paint the back of the transparency using a can of white spray paint.
   
4. Cut out and enjoy!

Of course, you're still left with the task of getting the size right... maybe check the specs of your printer to find out how many dots per inch it prints at, and do the math to get the image size correct?

 

--Zero

[+pboland]

I've never tried this myself, but I heard these instructions a long time ago for making relatively high quality Intellivision overlays:

 

1. Using a photo manipulation program, flip the image horizontally.
   
2. Print the image onto an inkjet transparency. These things have a "dull" side and a "shiny" side... since you flipped the image, the overlay should appear though the shiny side of the transparency.
   
3. Paint the back of the transparency using a can of white spray paint.
   
4. Cut out and enjoy!

Of course, you're still left with the task of getting the size right... maybe check the specs of your printer to find out how many dots per inch it prints at, and do the math to get the image size correct?

 

--Zero

That sounds like a good idea but, won't the paint flake off if you bend the transparency?

[desiv]

That sounds like a good idea but, won't the paint flake off if you bend the transparency?

 

Yeah, that process sounds pretty good.

One of the options that I saw someone try when making Vectrex overlays was to take the "finished and painted" transparency and laminate it. That made it a bit thicker and added some protection.

 

desiv