Jay
C-415 Build: https://imageshack.com/a/tShC/1
Other builds: https://imageshack.com/my/albums
Years ago I attended a clinic on signs that i will try to summarize here. The guy either printed or xeroxed color signs on plain good quality white bond paper. He then carefully used fine emery cloth or sandpaper to thin the paper as much as he could, and as evenly as he could, without creating a hole or a tear. Obviously this takes practice. He then used a diluted mix of regular Elmer's type white glue and distilled water to soak the sign and mounted in on the [in his example] plastic brick structure. Using soft Q-tips he pressed the softened glue soaked paper into the lines and grooves of the brick. At the end after some weathering the sign looked remarkably like it was painted on the brick rather than applied to it.
Dave Nelson
The trick is to paint the background space white before applying the label.
I did this with a decal, but the principle is the same:
You can see the white rectangle around the edges of the sign here. Anything which shows up white on the sign, like the big words Coca-Cola, is actually clear on the decal. The white paint shows through. For this sign, I used cheap acrylic paint. The fence is made from wooden coffee stirrers "liberated" from work. The resulting rough surface gives an old, weather-beaten look to the decal as applied.
And if you don't like Coke, how about a Moxie?
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
I have recently played with clear labels a bit. Mostly to make an overlay for a backlit sign. To be quite honest, it was a lot harder than I thought.
I bought some clear matte labels, thinking that high gloss might not look good. I ended up wasting a couple sheets of labels trying to get a decent one printed. The first ones were too "thin", so when they were backlit they looked washed out. I'm thinking this is sort of the same effect you are seeing with a dark background and yellow on the label. You could try playing with settings on the printer. Try using photo settings or even transparency settings. The colors will be much darker. The down side is that there is much more ink on the label then and you need to handle it very carefully until you are sure the ink is completely dry.
I tried clear glossy labels and was able to get much better printing results.
As far as white, if it shows white in your SOFTWARE and you print it on a clear label, the white is clear. That's it. If you want white, use white labels and trim very close to the edge of the image.
I have some decal paper also, but haven't played with it yet. I figure labels will suffice in some areas and it's a bit easier bacause you don't have to plan as much and try to fill the entire sheet with images before using a sheet of decal paper.
Just putting together a lumber shed structure that came without its transfers or signs. Thought I would try just printing my own on Avery transparent labels, but the result was unsatisfactory.
The background yellow was lost when applied against the dark grey styrene of the structure on the sign area. The black letters were indistinct. Seems the solid colour created by the word processor was not solid enough to block out the plastic behind.
I suppose this is not the correct type of transparent label to use. I know it is not an actual decal, but is there any way to use this type of common transparent label, or is the only thing that will work a specific product from the hobby shop?
Or should I just try using a dark background and a white or light lettering?
Oh, and I forget...what is the trick to printing a sign on a white background....so that the white does not just come out as a clear area (or the trick to printing white letters)? I seem to recall reading this somewhere, but can't find it again.