10-20-2014, 09:26 PM
That is probably the most difficult part (other than getting all the text to fit in the spaces).
What I do is copy the original recommending officer's autograph from the original citation. Greyscale it and then play with the contrast until it has a white background. The black/white signature is then pasted onto the filled in template as "transparent" so the white almost completely vanishes. Any left over lighter grey areas around the black signature go when the ink settles/soaks during/after printing.
I do this little touch just to give the document at least once piece of true originality - the submitting signature.
I did consider filling in all the had written citations in my own hand but that was just a bit too far for me and I probably wouldn't be able to get as much text in the spaces given.
I think it gives it a far warmer feel than those black and white excel type forms that were a common sight before "the site" opened up for us all.
One day I will probably print out A4 copies of both the original citations and translations (of all the awards in the collection) on quality paper and bind them into a book. For now I just have a giant folder of subfolders of digital images of citations and scanned in documents. One folder per recipient with as many images as I can find al in one place. It is certainly a lot easy than rummaging through boxes and boxes. It will however take me years to translate everything if I were to print out translations of all the citations. I'm taking it bit by bit and even that is overwhelming sometimes.
What I do is copy the original recommending officer's autograph from the original citation. Greyscale it and then play with the contrast until it has a white background. The black/white signature is then pasted onto the filled in template as "transparent" so the white almost completely vanishes. Any left over lighter grey areas around the black signature go when the ink settles/soaks during/after printing.
I do this little touch just to give the document at least once piece of true originality - the submitting signature.
I did consider filling in all the had written citations in my own hand but that was just a bit too far for me and I probably wouldn't be able to get as much text in the spaces given.
I think it gives it a far warmer feel than those black and white excel type forms that were a common sight before "the site" opened up for us all.
One day I will probably print out A4 copies of both the original citations and translations (of all the awards in the collection) on quality paper and bind them into a book. For now I just have a giant folder of subfolders of digital images of citations and scanned in documents. One folder per recipient with as many images as I can find al in one place. It is certainly a lot easy than rummaging through boxes and boxes. It will however take me years to translate everything if I were to print out translations of all the citations. I'm taking it bit by bit and even that is overwhelming sometimes.
"Signed with his own rubber stamp"
