Best software for designing a CPO

big10p

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Need to be a bit more specific. A CP you want to fabricate? wood? metal? Or just a CPO you want to design and/or work out best control placement?
 

Mr Bond

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I’ve got a 4 player mame cab and the control panel looks sh*te. I wanted to design something myself and get a cpo printed out and stick it either over the existing one (which may be impossible as it’d need to be mm perfect for all the button holes to line up). Or just make a new one from mdf the same size and re drill the holes to match the new cpo
 

big10p

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I just use Photoshop @ 300 pixels-per-inch for print quality. You can work using measurements (CM/inches) to size and position everything. When you have your basic layout done, print it out (on multiple sheets) and lay it onto your CP to make sure everything is right.

Depending on how complex you want your artwork, it may be better working with a vector artwork app, but I've never used one so can't really give any advise.
big10p2019-08-31 11:19:27
 

virtvic

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To make your life easier, don't draw out the button holes. leave the overlay blank and just scalpel out the holes after you have installed it.
 

muddymusic

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Photoshop, 300dpi, CMYK colour profile with transparent background. Set the page to the size of the art you want to create, stick guide lines on top, middle, left & right sides, then expand the canvas size 5mm on each side, that give you your bleed/overlap.

That makes sure when it's printed the art doesn't come up 1mm short or anything.

Set different layers for each part of the design, one for background, then borders, shapes, text etc. Makes it very easy to make minor positioning and colour adjustments later on.

When adding any layer effects like stroke and stuff to text I usually duplicate the layer and hide the original as a fall back if I want to change stuff later on.
 
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