I've printed onto overhead transparency material (large enough to
cover the whole panel), with the printing reversed, so you're looking
at it through the plastic film. That protects the printing. You need
to find a suitable adhesive (there are some sprays that work OK), and
getting it down without bubbles I guess is just an art. You can put
some thin rods under it to space it up, and start at an edge and
remove the rods one by one as you work across the panel. It's a
technique like people who apply veneer or laminate use.

A different ink-different brand of printer-(or even better, laser
printed) might solve your smearing problem if you want to keep using
adhesive labels.

It's distinctly more hassle, but you can make a very nice looking
panel by getting it anodized and photoengraving the lettering into it.
The difficulty these days is locating the photoresist. I've made
several thousand panels that way, but have been out of that business
for over twenty years.

Cheers,
Tom

"Harry Williams" wrote in message ...
I am working on a project and need to label a chassis. I have used Microsoft
Visio to create a template for the front
and rear of the chassis. I then printed those images on transparent labels.
They look nice but I have two problems.
First if the ink gets damp at all it smears and second its difficult to
apply the label to the chassis without air pockets
forming. I would like to hear from someone that has done this kind of work
and find out whats the best way to label
a project chassis.

73's
Harry
W0PIY