what paper to use for the cover project

If you've stopped by here before today and then you should know I'm all virtually Transformers. Yet what you may not know is my e'er growing love of the retro video game scene. I'one thousand very close to completing my Generation One Transformers collection and with prices ever seeming to climb every mean solar day, I often await elsewhere to fulfill that collecting want.

Having express space for a video game drove shouldn't come as a surprise. Any type of collector will at i point or another face that consequence of merely running out of space. One way I've found to save some space, and give me something fun to work on is making custom cases for certain game platforms. Many of you lot may be familiar with the big, clunky, fragile jewel cases Sega used for their Sega CD and Sega Saturn games. While I like the look, I don't similar how much space they take up on my shelves. I had heard of this site called The Encompass Project, merely had never really looked into it much until some indicate terminal yr. I had more games than I had space for, or some games missing cases all together. Enter this awesome website.

Thanks to a lot of great users in the gaming community, many cover images have been uploaded to The Cover Project site. Many of these images have been altered into custom covers. When I noticed many of the Sega CD and Saturn covers had been redone as DVD covers I started to have notice. It wasn't long before I was trying my hand at press my ain covers to re-case my entire Sega CD and Saturn collections.

While trying my own hand, I kept running into problems. 1) I didn't take a good enough printer at home, two) trimming them down was a hassle. I saw a thread on the forums at The Cover Projection where a user mentioned using his local Staples shop to print his Nintendo DS custom covers. Instead of going downwards to the bodily store, I tried uploading a few images at Staples.com and printing my covers that way. My showtime attempt was pretty successful, but the perfectionist in me meant I had to go on trying until I found what I thought was the best combination.

While I may have not figure information technology all out merely yet, I retrieve I've got a pretty good combination downwardly that yields good, and best yet affordable results. Here is a step by step tutorial if you lot will if you desire to attempt it out.

• First thing you demand to do is go to The Cover Project site and download the images you desire to utilize. The site is categorized by gaming platform. Save your images to your computers hard bulldoze or an external device like a pollex drive or SD card.
• When downloading your comprehend images, make sure y'all are selecting DVD equally some covers accept multiple formats.
• One you have your images, go to Staples.com, or more specifically hither.
• Add your image file by clicking on 'Add together Files'. You can as well proper noun your job if y'all wish.
• Change your quantity if you desire more than i impress.
• Nether the Impress Options column, we are going to make a few changes.
• For Media, click the arrow to bring upwardly the options window and select 8.five x 11 80lb Aristocracy Gloss DS
• Change the Orientation from Portrait to Landscape
• When washed, click the xanthous Add to Cart button.

Each print is only $.62 each! Now you may exist wondering about the paper. While information technology'south called Elite Gloss, it'southward not a thick, glossy slice of paper. If you want a thinner, glossier print then select 8lb Surpeme Gloss. Those price $.76 each. While I liked the look, information technology was a little too shiny for my tastes. I call back the Elite Gloss DS looks great, even once you've inserted it into your DVD case.

I've sent several print jobs to my local Staples store and they've always done a great job. Virtually of the time the prints are ready long before the estimated time the website lists. The last time I sent in an order the guy working the Re-create & Print section gave me his business organisation cards and merely told me to adhere the images with the paper/orientation/etc. He said he was easier for him, but if you're sending in a lot of prints you are best to but stick with the website.

I haven't had these orders shipped to me, only that is an option. I've simply gone down to the store to pick them up myself. Now my local shop has allow me use their rotary cut tool free of charge the final few times I've been in that location. This is simply a large cutting board with a blade in a handle that slides down the side of the lath. Information technology makes trimming the covers a breeze and best of all, it's free. They told me it would exist $.50 per folio to trim, or I could do it myself.

I'yard guessing you could besides merely take your retention card or pollex drive downwards to the store and tell them what paper and instructions to utilize likewise.

Overall I've been actually happy with my results. The paper holds the colors really well. I like using the standard black DVD cases for Sega CD, and white for Saturn. I as well plan on re-casing my Dreamcast collection very soon and I'll too utilize white DVD cases for them. Personally I merely love the compatible look of the DVD cases, plus the larger, brightly colored game logos on the spine expect nice, especially on the Dreamcast games.

I know some collectors shy away from this sort of thing, just I personally dear doing this. Well-nigh of the time I stick with using the original art, but I did go for some custom art / layout similar on the Final Fight CD case. I've got to have all my Sega CD spines the same color!

I also utilize the same steps above to print custom covers for Sega Genesis and Nintendo 64 games. Those covers are fabricated for the Universal Game Cases, just I re-use Genesis cases for my Genesis games.

Here is an example of a Genesis cover I recently printed. I establish the game, Exile, for simply $iv.99 at my local game shop. Even so the cover art was faded and had an ugly former rental label on the spine. I tried to remove the characterization, but it would take torn the cover or left besides much nasty residual. Enter The Cover Project!

Thankfully the original fine art had already been uploaded into their database so I saved information technology to my hard drive and submitted it with my latest batch to Staples to be printed.

The original insert is on superlative. Discover how faded information technology is compared to the new printed copy? Looks great, doesn't information technology?

Here is another adjacent comparing. Not merely does it have brighter colors, only the spine looks 10 times better!

Simply slide the new print downwards into the original Genesis case it will form bend itself to fit perfectly. At present that I know how piece of cake it is to print Genesis covers, I'm e'er on the lookout for cheap sports titles I tin can raid for their cases! I frequently don't even bother to look at loose Genesis carts because I adopt them to at to the lowest degree take their example, if non complete. However now I've got an affordable option to brand my own cases in the event I find a skillful deal on a loose game!

I hope you observe this "tutorial" helpful and entertaining. Once I stop re-casing all my disc based Sega games I'll post and update with plenty of pictures.

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Source: https://randomtoyreviews.blogspot.com/2015/01/a-guide-to-printing-custom-video-game.html

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