Howdy all, I needed to poke my head in and weigh in on the subject. First, I just took a look at Valentino's work and it is superb, and if the torch is to be passed, it couldn't go in a better direction. Having said that, I want to clarify some of the mystery/history about my original decals that have been mentioned in this thread. Valentino was quick to mention that his observations were objective and constructive, which I do not doubt, but here's a little photo from my archives that may set a few things straight:
This is a reduced version of a file that was created when several labels were taken off a screen-used Pack and slapped onto a scanner. As you can tell, they are original silkscreened metal labels, and vectorizing those was a simple matter of tracing and/or typeface replication. For these labels:
- Bumper Label
- PPD Label
- HGA Label
- Gearbox Label
-"Filler Plug" Label
I guarantee their size and accuracy 100%. I never put any "tells" in these files. If I had, I would definitely have advertised them as such, but I'm one of those dummies that still believes in karma, doing the right thing, etc. It's why I'm not rich, today, of course!
The Clippard labels also fall into this 100% guarantee, because they were also drawn from scanned original labels.
Having said that, when I briefly got my own screen-used pack, I did indeed note that the bumper label was cut smaller and rounded at the corners, but the contents were the same size. Both were printed metal labels, so I have no explanation other than they may have been separate runs by the original label manufacturer.
The HGA label is meant to be cut down to the red edge, indeed a 1.25" disk. The black line around it is meant to be a "bleed area" so that if you don't cut it perfectly, at least the bits sticking out are black, not white, and less likely to be visible when mounted onto the pack! Same goes for the Bumper label. Similarly, the black circle in the center of the HGA label is meant to be cut away, and is actually the exact size hole of a standard handheld hole-puncher. Sorry, it was so clear in my head that I assumed everyone else would get it too. Not enough direction on my part, I guess.
For "derivative" labels such as the smaller/foil/trap/etc. versions of the PPD label, I admit to simply scaling them (aspect-locked) down to sizes indicated by Bugstomper's plans. This seemed like a safe bet, because who would have made whole new labels instead of scaling existing ones, especially in the early 1980s when it couldn't be done by computer?
Then, for a few other labels, I was forced to use photos I had taken of the Planet Hollywood (Wash. DC, R.I.P) pack. What I did with those was adjust/warp the perspective in Photoshop until it exactly fit the wireframe of Bugstomper's plans. This is how I arrived at the size of the EDA label, for example:
In fact, it was this label that proved to me that working from reference photos is (no offense) not nearly as reliable as scanning the real label. But if the photo image of the whole top of the pack was stretched into shape to match BS' plans, it was, again, a "safe bet" that the label on that pack top would be largely accurate. Now, as to the "PB/MB" typo, my eyes popped out when I saw that because I distinctly remember catching that and fixing it years ago. Now I'm off to see which version of the file has been on my website all these years. Gods, I'm sorry, people!
There are other factors to consider as well. As I mentioned, all these labels were pre-computer and very likely made by hand-laying type, which easily allows for spacing errors, typos, etc. If I saw this on an original label, I replicated it, warts and all. Another factor is my DTP skills at doing this kind of work. All I can say is that I've been working with Adobe since before it was even available for Windows, and Corel Draw before that - so it's been my livelihood, more often than not, since at least 1990. Take that as you will.
Something I never stipulated about my labels because I assumed it was known - for maximum accuracy, some labels are meant to be on white (paper?) backgrounds, and some onto metallic (foil) backgrounds. Perhaps I could have been more detailed about that!
Anyway, I pretty much stopped working on these labels in 2003 when I threw them up onto my website. It looks as if more labels/references have been discovered since then and this most definitely warrants a renovation of this resource!
So that's about all I have to say about that. I fully agree that progress marches on and if someone does a better job at something than I can, I'd be the first to cheer him/her on. But I also want to make sure that progress comes honestly, so while I now see some mistakes in my work, I needed to clear up things that may look like mistakes but aren't. End of rant!
- Ken -