# First Sticker Plotter



## richmond-issued (Apr 7, 2008)

Hello all,

I am looking to start making my own stickers. The stickers I am currently having made are 4"x4", and have black, white and yellow inks in them. They are being printed on a nice, peel-away vinyl, and I would like to use the same kind of material. I was hoping someone could suggest the bare neccessities I would need to accomplish the same things that I am currently having done. I am not looking into get into car decals or clear vinyl, basically I just want to keep the same stickers featured below but I would like to make them on my own.

Any suggestions for a plotter to use? 
I don't mind having to cut them on my own.

Thanks,
Richmond-Issued.com


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## cmyk (Dec 3, 2007)

i guess you would need one of those eco-solvent plotters, which are capable of printing high quality 1440 dpi images.

but i believe your stickers are screen printed.


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## richmond-issued (Apr 7, 2008)

Right, they are sreenprinted vinyl, done by contagiousgraphics, im just looking to replicate these on my own, and was wondering what sort of printer would best suit me in terms of price, quality and ease of use. Also, I am seeing that some of these vinyl plotters can be used for shirts?

i have a lot to learn....


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## Pwear (Mar 7, 2008)

So you'll need a vinyl cutter/plotter, but also some way to print the actual designs. If you're not prepared to silk screen them, there are other (faster, cleaner) ways.


You can invest in something like the Roland VersaCamm which is 15-20 grand, and will print AND cut your designs. It's a large format printer so you can hypothetically make vehicle wraps, posters, stickers, etc.

That's damn expensive, so the other option is to buy a Roland GX-24 which is JUST a cutter/plotter, BUT comes with software that you can use with your desktop (or large format) color printer. Basically you import your design into the Roland software, add registration marks and print on your own printer - then take the paper and feed it into the Roland. The cutter will read the registration marks and a cut line that you specified, and cut out the stickers.

This is the route I'm using, the cutter is about 1700 bucks. If you message Josh from Imprintables (sponsor on the left) you can get a hundred bucks or so off.


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## jiarby (Feb 8, 2007)

If it is just to make these stickers you'd do better to save your money and keep buying them. A mutoh, roland, or mimaki can print these and you can then hand cut with a straightedge and a box knife. 

You are looking at a minimum of 10K plus ink, vinyl, etc...

Or you can screen them yourself. You can buy the vinyl at any sign supply shop (Glantz, Fellers, Montroy, SW, Beacon, JRA, etc...) and burn a black screen and a yellow screen. You could do this for next to nothing or to 10k+ depending on how nutz you go with buying equipment. the nazdar vinyl ink its pretty stout, use in a ventilated room!


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## richmond-issued (Apr 7, 2008)

wow, well, I had been looking at some machines in the 300-700 dollar range, but definitely not even touching the thousand dollar mark, specially ten thousand!

So a machine say like this- Desay Group ## World wide Signmaking equipment and Supplies Provider ##.

with a 20 dollar sheet of adhesive vinyl, and a 2-3 inks wouldnt reproduce what I am going for?


Thanks btw, really appreciate the advice.


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## Pwear (Mar 7, 2008)

Those are just cutters, not printers, and they don't have the optical sensor to be able to cut around printed images like the Roland. That's part of the reason it's more expensive. You'd be able to cut one-color decals but not multi-color stickers. 

You can print and then cut them by hand as posted above, but if you're making odd-shaped stickers you'll probably want a cutter that can cut around a printed image.


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## richmond-issued (Apr 7, 2008)

Wow, okay, well I am mainly thinking of doing mostly rectangular and square stickers, so that might work well for me... but I still couldn't do multi colored ones eh? 

thanks


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## LittleDogy (Jan 15, 2008)

richmond-issued said:


> Wow, okay, well I am mainly thinking of doing mostly rectangular and square stickers, so that might work well for me... but I still couldn't do multi colored ones eh?
> 
> thanks


 
You can do the stickers above by cutting the white vinyl and gold vinyl. Then place those two colors on black vinyl.


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## Pwear (Mar 7, 2008)

Yeah that's another option, using colored vinyl and layering it. If you're cutting manually and just want to use a printer though, all you need is the printer, some sticker paper and a pair of scissors.


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