Steggo Studios Tayda UV Printing Tutorial

A lot of people have asked about the art on my enclosures. Almost all of my enclosures are UV printed by Tayda. They do some amazing work, but there is a learning curve to getting it "right" - so I've put together this tutorial on the steps and programs I use to get my enclosures together. I will have a PDF version of this tutorial as well and I can send it out.

Steggo Studios Tayda UV Printing Tutorial

This guide is designed for individuals wanting to create enclosures using Tayda Electronics’ (https://www.taydaelectronics.com/) UV printing service using Adobe Illustrator. At this point, Illustrator is the only program that is known to work correctly 100% of the time with the Roland VersaWorks printers used by Tayda. This tutorial will assume that you have a basic working knowledge of how to use Illustrator, but I’ll include a few fun tips and techniques as well.

Step 1 – Start with the Right Template!

Tayda has both Adobe Illustrator and PDF versions of their UV templates. Each size of enclosure has its own template, and they’re available online when you order the UV print job:

https://www.taydaelectronics.com/hardware/enclosures/enclosure-uv-printing-service.html

When you bring the template in to Illustrator, it should have a total of 3 layers: White, Color, and Gloss. Anything that will be printed white goes in the white layer. Anything that will be printed in color goes in the color layer. Any gloss or matte features (even an overall gloss or matte) will go in the gloss layer.

The template itself will be a white workboard in the middle of the screen. These are the limits of your art. Anything outside that area will not print (and may even cause issues with the UV printing process, but I’ve never tried it). I tend to keep my art a bit inside that border as the corners of most of the enclosures sold by Tayda are rounded, not square.

Step 2 – Use your drill template to lay out the enclosure

Just about every commercially available pedal PCB has a drill template available. The first thing you’ll need to do is make sure you have a version of it that is the actual size of the enclosure itself. I typically bring the template into Photoshop, but any photo editing / image editing software where you can adjust the scale of a drawing to real scale should work.

Enclosure sizes can be found in a variety of places:

• Tayda has the sizes in mm on their website in the listing of each enclosure type
• Amplified Parts has a list of enclosure sizes:
• https://www.amplifiedparts.com/tech-articles/stompbox-enclosures
• Pedal Parts Plus has several templates that give exact dimensions in their “Customize an Enclosure” section:
• https://www.pedalpartsplus.com/category-s/124.htm

Once the enclosure has been sized properly, if there is no indication of center on the enclosure, I tend to add some marking (see the “plus” sign in the drawing above) to the center of the template. This makes it easier to center and align the template when I move it to Illustrator, and it allows me to measure the hole locations in Photoshop and create an accurate drill template in the Tayda Drill Tool. I move all of the measurements to Excel and I have a template set up which will generate the numbers I add to the drill tool.

The calculations in the yellow columns are the raw numbers, the ones in the green are rounded with an allowance added for powder coating.

Once the drill template is ready, I move it over to Illustrator and put it at the bottom of the white layer. If you have a blank template, Illustrator should indicate when the drill template image is centered in the workspace.

Step 3 – Add guides to center knobs, controls, and indicators

Just about every pedal is going to have multiple controls on the face of the enclosure – be they knobs, switches, or indicator lights / LEDs. I create guides that allow me to line up each of those features – usually in the white layer. It really doesn’t matter what layer the guides are in, just as long as they are clear and are aligned to where the controls are going to be on the final pedal.

Step 4 – Add representative shapes for the knobs, switches, etc.

At this point you’ll need to make some decisions about what the pedal is going to look like once it is finished. In order to have art that doesn’t end up in the middle of a switch or under a knob, you’ll need to block out space for all the controls. Illustrator is very good about providing the actual size of any feature added to the workspace, so if you have 15mm knobs, then you can create a 15mm circle using the ellipse tool to block that space on the workboard. It is also a handy tool to understand whether or not that 28mm chicken head knob you’d like to use is actually going to work, or if it is going to run over the edge of the enclosure and/or interfere with the neighboring 28mm chicken head knob!

While these knob indicators started out in the “white” layer, ultimately they will need to be toward the top of the color layer (unless you’re doing an enclosure all in white).

Step 5 – Make sure all your art is in vector format

I use a lot of licensed stock art in making my pedals, but I’ve also paid for original art as well. Regardless of the source of the art, all of it will need to be in vector (rather than raster) format to be used on the enclosure. That means anything that is a .jpg, .gif, .png, etc. is going to need to be converted to a vector before it will print.

For this enclosure I brought over Clark, the Kentrosaurus, from another program. He’s a licensed piece of art, but as you can see he came in as an image – that’s because Clark’s a .jpg, not a vector. No problem, Illustrator can perform the conversion!

Using the Image Trace tool (which you can see at the bottom right) you can convert the image file to a vector. There are several different modes – I tend to use either “Low Fidelity Photo” or “High Fidelity Photo” the most, though depending on the art, there are lots of other settings that may make sense. Fortunately, you can experiment until you get the result you want!

Step 6 – Expand and edit your image trace

Once the image trace is complete, you’ll need to “Expand” the object. This will split the vector up into its paths and fills, which can then be easily edited.

Once the image is expanded, it should be a “Group” and you’ll be able to edit individual paths in it. This will let you get rid of all of the white space and only be left with the actual image itself (with no background)

Step 7 – Size and place the image

Now that the image is in vector format and any background has been removed, it can be rotated and adjusted to fit the enclosure itself. Because of the orientation of this enclosure, everything must be rotated 90 degrees so that it prints and drills correctly. Also note, at this point I’ve brought everything up to the color layer as this enclosure will have (at least) color and white (more on that later!). 

Step 8 – Add background and basic text

Once the basic enclosure is laid out, I typically add a rectangle of whatever color enclosure I’m planning on using (assuming I’m not doing an enclosure with a full image background). This lets me sanity check the art against the actual background of the pedal to make sure the contrast works. I generally put the background color in the white layer, remembering that anything that you want to print in white should be above the background color for the time being. I then start adding text to the pedal. You’ll note that everything is still text at this point – that’s so I can still edit it until I’m happy with the final result.

For this particular pedal, I wanted the name of the pedal and the witty saying to be in white text on the red background, not black text on the red background. To do that I moved the text from the color layer to the white layer. I then applied the RDG_WHITE color swatch to the text. If you don’t do this, your text will not print! Simply having it in “white” in the White layer will not work!

Tayda has a link on the UV enclosure portion of their website that will allow you to download the Roland Versa Works swatches to your copy of Illustrator.

https://www.taydaelectronics.com/hardware/enclosures/enclosure-uv-printing-service.html

To access them after installation, you’ll need to bring up your swatch window, and then bring up the User Defined swatches. This will give you the RolandVersaWorks swatch as shown in the image above. There are a total of six swatches provided, but Tayda’s current UV printing service only uses the RDG_WHITE and RDG_GLOSS swatches. The others include some metallics and others I’d love to see them add at some point in the future!

Step 9 – Create text outlines and expand

At this point, all the text is still emulated using whatever font use used under the character menu. In order for the graphic to print properly at Tayda, you’ll need to convert all of it to vectors. First you “Create Outlines” of the text under the “Type” menu. Next you go into “Object” and “Expand,” just like you’d do on any image trace. Once this is done, all of your text should appear as a “Group” in the layer window.

Step 10 – Create a copy of color graphics for the white layer

Unless you’re printing on a white enclosure, you’ll need to put a “white” version of any color graphics into the white layer perfectly aligned to the color version. This is because the UV inks are translucent, not opaque. I start by making a simple copy of the group (or groups) in question.

Once the group is coped and moved to the white layer, I apply the RDG_WHITE color swatch to make the whole group RDG_WHITE (which as always is a bit greyish on the screen). Depending on the complexity of the image, I may use the “Unite” function under the “Pathfinder” tool to create essentially one shape (usually a “Compound Path” rather than a “Group”) as this reduces the final file size, but it’s not required. 

Step 11 – Finish the graphics and any gloss layers

At this point, you can go about finishing the rest of the art on the enclosure. For this particular enclosure, I decided to go with a black box at the top of the enclosure using the “Rectangle” tool. I then rounded the edges in that tool. I changed the color of the knob placeholders from black to magenta so they would show up on top of the rectangle. I then added the text for the control knobs, input, output, and power source. I also added a couple of friendly Kentrosauruses along the top for good measure. I added all of these in a contrasting color, but that wasn’t my final goal. I really wanted white text in the top box, but you can’t print white on top of black.

If you look at the image below, you’ll see a have a copy of the black rectangle in RDG_WHITE in the white layer – that means there is a full white layer below and aligned to the black rectangle. After creating outlines of all the text and expanding it, I lumped it all together in one group. I could then use the “Minus Front” tool in the “Pathfinder” with both the black rectangle and the text group selected.

Once the front group had been removed, it leaves “holes” in the black rectangle. Since it is over an unaltered white rectangle, the white will show through, and it will give the effect of white text on a black background.

Finally, I decided I wanted to add a gloss layer – and have a couple of Kentrosaurus skeletons that would be visible on the black. I found a couple of appropriate skeletons, sized them, and put them in the gloss layer. Use the RDG_GLOSS swatch on these or they won’t print! When you order your enclosure you can decide whether you want the “Gloss” layer to be a gloss or matte varnish.

Step 12 – Remove design aides and final check!

At this point the artwork for the pedal enclosure should be complete. Next you should remove all of the “job aides” we’ve included to this point so we’re left only with the art we actually want to print on the final enclosure. NOTE: You don’t need to leave “holes” in the art where the enclosure is going to be drilled.

In the image below I’ve removed the original drill template and red rectangle I was using as a background. I’ve also removed the circles that were denoting the knobs, stomp switch, and LED bezel. All I’m left with now is the final art.

Next it is time to perform a final check on the art before it is saved and submitted to Tayda for UV printing.

You can double check alignment by hiding the color layer to ensure that that white layer is lined up underneath.

FINAL CHECK

Once you’re satisfied with the art, it is time for final check:

• Make sure the art is in CMYK format. While it will still print in RGB, the colors will be off!
• Make sure all the layers only contain vectors (groups, paths, etc.) – no text, no images, no image traces.
• Make sure the “White” layer only contains vectors with the RDG_WHITE swatch applied
• Make sure the “Gloss” layer only contains vectors with the RDG_GLOSS swatch applied
• Double check your color layer to make sure that there aren’t any “white” colored areas, and that the color layer is aligned to the underlying white layer
• Save the final image as an Adobe PDF – Tayda requires everything to be in PDF format! 

At this point you’re ready to buy enclosures. Tayda offers several colors of enclosures both in undrilled and pre-drilled varieties.

• If you need custom drill jobs, make sure you order these and make sure they’re for the right enclosure size
• Make sure you order the correct size enclosure UV printing service
• If you need a second print on the white layer (rare) make sure you add this service separately – it is not included in a normal UV print
• If you want a gloss layer, make sure you add this service separately – it is not included in a normal UV print

The custom enclosure process usually takes roughly two weeks to complete. During the height of the pandemic when there were supply line challenges and massive orders, the timeline was more like four weeks – so plan ahead!

The Finished Product

Thank you!

Thank you for reading this tutorial. Hopefully it has been helpful and you’re well on your way to creating your own fun enclosures. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to get in touch with me and if I can help, I will!