I tried very hard to fix almost-obliterated control legends on an old National Walkman-style machine. (Do I have to use "style" when referencing a non-Sony device as a walkman?) Anyway, I decided to use good quality clear labels because I couldn't imagine any other way that I personally could get the precision I wanted - certainly not with a paintbrush - and to get the print quality I had to buy a colour laser. As inkjet printers are one of my favourite things to hate, I was happy to get the the laser. Then, I had to arm-wrestle Microsoft Word to get the font and size right, and this was very frustrating. I doubt Microsoft itself ever tested Word at that level of resolution. But, I spent the last 13 years of my working life arm-wrestling MS Word so it was just a matter of time before it submitted to me. Beyond font size and layout, the real problem - if you're paying attention you probably knew this was coming - is that unless you have dedicated equipment and inks, you can't print white. Normal printers just don't print anything where you might want white. So my design used a black background - this being the body colour of the walkman - and I masked the application area on the walkman and painted it white. The labels printed up quite nicely and after I cut them down with a Very Sharp scalpel they applied nicely and looked OK. The labels were ultra slim, adequately sticky, and hardly visible... but I just couldn't bear to look at it so I sold it. End of story.
