I just Googled “1950’s Kentucky Bourbon” and clicked on images. There’s a boatload of pictures of bottles and old ads from the 50’s. I wouldn’t know about changing the name or image. You’d have to find someone who is good with photo editing software. I printed out this sign and glued it to some thin cardboard then added the coffee stir stick trim.

John

Most of my signs are made on the computer or my copier. I use old ads and photos from magazines

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Your signs are great! Nice work! JohnA

John/Gene, Thanks.   

Just go on the internet and look for vintage billboards, that's where I found this one. Don

Just Google search for what you want (e.g. Kentucky Bourbon). Go to images and dozens will show up. If you’re on a Mac (I’m sure it’s similar on a PC) drag the image to your desktop. Open a Pages new page and drag the image back to the this new blank page. At this point, you can do what you want with it in terms of size. Very simple to manipulate the image. When you put the cursor on the image of the corner, you’ll be able to “pull” the image to whatever size you need.

Making your own signs is a little (but not much) more complicated, probably too much to explain here. Search Google again and you’ll find tutorials. Many people use specific image software which would give you the ultimate flexibility in manipulating the signs. I’ve always been able to do all my signs without it since they’re mostly all just type signs. Just takes a little practice. If all this computer manipulation is too much, you can always go really old school and find the Google image, resize it, paste the image next to some type you’ve done (e.g. name of the store, etc.) and then just xerox the image.

I've used a decal kit for ink jet printers.  I got some pretty good results but I'm still learning.

All, thanks,,,, NOW what is your recommendation for a Printer.... Full disclosure, I live in Japan and dont have the big box stores here... Amazon works!!!

the best inkjet printer

Canon Pixma Pro-100 Wireless Color Professional Inkjet Printer

• 8 Dye based inks for amazing gradients and color, 3 of which are dedicated grayscale inks for beautiful black & white prints
• The Optimum Image Generating System reproduces colors as you intend them by logically selecting the optimum ink combination and placement. Output tray capacity auto sheet feeder: 150 sheets of plain paper; 20 sheets photo paper (4x6); 10 sheets (letter/8x10); 1 sheet (A3+). Manual feeder: 1 sheet of photo paper (all sizes)and
• Compatible with individual CLI 42 ink tanks (Black, gray, light gray, cyan, photo cyan, magenta, photo magenta, yellow). Save even more on value packs. Only replace the inks that run out
• 4800 x 2400 dots per inch with fine technology for incredible detail. Print your vision up to 13 inches x 19 inches: Print professional quality photos on various media up to 13 inches x 19 inches
• Weight: 43.2 in bullet point. Number of nozzles: 6,144. Number of nozzles: 768 per color 6144 total

and available from AMAZON. I use it with a

I had done this sign many years ago. Ink jet printer.  Red River Valley and Farmers Co-op, decals provided with a Walther's O-scale model, I don't remember the model. 

I remember Jim Pollicastro writing about making images that look like they're painted on buildings by printing the image on regular paper then sanding the back side to make the paper very thin then using white glue on the back and then pressing the image into the texture of the building wall. Photos of his technique looked great.

@coach joe posted:

I remember Jim Pollicastro writing about making images that look like they're painted on buildings by printing the image on regular paper then sanding the back side to make the paper very thin then using white glue on the back and then pressing the image into the texture of the building wall. Photos of his technique looked great.

That’s a great technique, perfected i think, by George Sellios on his amazing Franklin & South Manchester. It takes a little practice to sand it back without ripping it but, it’s a quick learn. When gluing to the building side, just run your finger nail lightly along the bricks or the clapboard so the image “sinks” more into the wall. After it’s really dry, you can lightly dry brush the image (or use chalks) the same color of the wall and it will enhance the effect of the wall bleeding through the “painted on” image.

@bluedragon posted:

All, thanks,,,, NOW what is your recommendation for a Printer.... Full disclosure, I live in Japan and dont have the big box stores here... Amazon works!!!

Any of the inkjet printers with 6 or more ink cartridges. You get better color depth, brighter colors. Some have a  clear coating cartridge and the clear coating is supposed to drastically slow down the fading with time.

The photo ones  put out by Canon and Espon use dyes instead of ink, allowing for smaller nozzles, higher dpi, and the dyes reproduce colors better. BTW, they still call it ink for marketing purposes.

If you want colorful and detailed graphics, stay away from the office inkjets that only use 3 colors and black.

There is some really good free paint and photo editing software out there too
paint.net at  https://www.getpaint.net/

GIMP- versions for Windows, Linux and OSX. https://www.gimp.org/

Inkscape- If you want a vector based program, which are great for scalable text that won't pixelate. (Drawing pictures in these has a big learning curve though). The trace features can come in handy at times. https://inkscape.org/