Very nice! Would you mind sharing how you did the art work? How do you scale it to fit a given box size etc?
kw
Mostly by trial and error, actually … I use a rather old imaging software program called PhotoStudio (no longer available, so far as I know) which lets you build composite images like this, with a text function that will utilize any font you have on your system … and I have a lot of fonts, especially "old fashioned" ones.
Because that text function is part of the image process, it even allows one to "distort" a font so it looks more like the original font you are trying to duplicate, becuase you can take any image, or part of an image, and stretch it one way or the other (e.g. increase height while jholding the width constant … or vice versa) For example, the middle line in this image is the text as typed, which has simply been distorted a couple of different ways to produce the upper and lower lines …
You can find all sorts of line drawings and period "advertising cuts", including versions most of the labelled period cartridge images, on the internet … for example, the image of the Colt Model 1878 DA revolver I used to make my facsimile Dominion Carteidge Company .45 Colt label -
… which is based on this original label -
I find that determining the dimensions of the label is mostly a matter of getting the proportions right - in other words, if the finished size of label for your box needs to be 2.5" by 5" then you just have to create your label in those proportions. I tend to create my labels in quite large size images, to ensure crispness of detail when they are printed … so I might literally make the master image for a label I want to print at 2.5" x 5" as big as 2500 pixels by 5000 pixels … then it is just a matter of determining what printing scale to select (e.g. 20%, or whatever) will produce the correct size of label . (That's where some of the trial and error comes in … i.e. print one off at a scale you estimate will be right, then measure it and adjust the exact scale setting to what you need. Say you guesstimated it should be printed at 20% scale, but then when you measure that trial label, it turns out it needs to be adjusted up or down a bit … the right scale might end up 21.5%, or 18%, or whatever ...