On the "Vectrex Fans Unite!" group on Facebook, we have covered several ways of creating boxes for homebrew Vectrex games — but whether they're made by cutting out with scissors or by using a vinyl cutter, they all rely on printing the artwork on a wide-format printer.
This project changes that - with a bit of effort and some luck, we can make a box from two sheets of US Letter paper, glued together.
Here's the plan: we have to print each sheet using 'print to edge' (sometimes referred to as 'margins: none' or 'borderless'); then we flip it over and print guidelines on the back that we cut around and use to fold. Let's start:
Download front-print.png and print it on thick photo paper at 300 dpi, with 'print to edge' set, using high quality mode. Make sure that the 'shrink to fit' option is NOT set. It is essential that you tell the printer driver that the paper size is US Letter, which is 8.5in by 11in, in portrait mode. The artwork supplied here was created to also be exactly 8.5 by 11 which is why 'print to edge' is essential.
Then download front-cut.png. Take the page you just printed, and reinsert it into your printer so that it prints on the other side. On my printer, that's done by putting it in the rear manual feed slot, top of the print downwards, with the printed side facing away. You can set the print quality in your printer driver back to 'normal' for this print.
The reverse side of most photo paper is not intended for printing. It should print OK but may need a little extra time to dry. This is why we print it after printing the front side. You don't want to feed a wet print through your printer again. If all went well, the cut and fold marks on the back should align perfectly with the graphics on the front, but don't worry - if it's a little off, it'll still work because we printed the box design with some margin bleed so you don't need to align front and back exactly to the pixel. (I'll write more on how to create a design for printing on US Letter in another document).
Once the print has dried, place it on a cutting surface, and using a straight edge (e.g. a metal ruler) and a sharp blade (like a scalpel or a craft knife) cut along the red lines, then fold along the remaining blue lines. Folding is easier if you lightly score along the lines first, but be gentle and don't cut through the paper. There's a tool called a 'folding bone' which is worth using when creasing edges if you already have one.
Repeat this for a second sheet, using the graphics for the back of the box, which are back-print.png and back-cut.png.
Carefully align one of the side flaps with the corresponding side on the second print, and glue the two cards together. Continue on to assemble the entire box in the obvious way, leaving the top flap unglued but tucked in.
You could have, if you had prefered, joined the two sheets together first and followed up with the cutting and folding, which can be done in either order, but save that for your second attempt. Also, if you don't have a heavy grade of photo paper, you can create a blank box from regular white card, and glue a lighter grade of photo-paper to that box. The underlying box frame can be cut from a single piece of larger card given that it will not be printed. Finally, if you a lucky enough to own a vinyl cutter - even one of the smaller ones that can only handle up to US Letter or European A4 - you can cut and score the back using that.
At some point in the future I might 3D print a box whose outside dimensions match the inside dimensions of a Vectrex cartridge box so that it can be used to form a paper box around… I haven't rechecked the dimensions of official boxes recently and I read on the group that it is sometimes an issue to get box protectors that exactly fit some home-made boxes.
