I have this picture, can you turn it into a decal for me? (actual example)

Recently a customer send us this image:

He wanted to take this image (the above size being 1.5 “x1.5″) and turn it into a small decal (10″x10”).

Normally, the cost of a decal like this well under $20… if we have the artwork in a decal ready format. However, this above decal is not even close. The above image is less than 3 square inches. To get to 100 square inches, the above decal would have to be 33 times larger. So lets do that. The following image is a crop of the original. It is ONLY enlarged half that amount. Can you tell which part of the original it is? Imagine if it was enlarged to the size need. The details just are not there. Added to this, the original image is only ‘drawn’ at 72dpi. Minimum quality needed is 150dpi.

Enough of these technical issues. What does this mean for the customer who just wanted a nice decal made from the original image? Much added cost. A redraw by hand is needed. Then the redraw will be scanned into the computer for more clean up and conversion to a final decal file format. Even before a decal can be made, several hours of redraw time is needed… cost $75 (not including the decal cost). Wow!

Why go over all this? At first glance the cost of converting an image to a decal seems like we’re some kind of bandits… to some customers. But the reality is, even at the prices we do charge, our conversion prices do not cover our conversion costs. Why do we do it anyway? It’s fun (although not profitable). It’s fun to get paid to draw. To get away from a computer and keyboard and sit down with paper and pencil and draw…. now that is some quality personal time. And to get paid for it besides, it makes it all worth while.

So by no reason, feel we don’t want to do decal conversions. Send us what you have and we’ll get back with you a quote and ordering link (but steady yourself before you look at the price).

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or stripes?