Spectrum-inspired tax disc
Today, I needed to hand over some cash to the DVLA to keep my car on the road (legally) for another year, and so I can tell them to fix some potholes in the process. Since they stopped issuing paper tax discs, though, I've made my own - based on the template of the 1977-87 version, i.e. this one:
They came in five colours, eventually:
- blue (1977, 1981, 1985)
- brown (1978, 1982, 1986)
- green (1979, 1983)
- red (1980, 1984)
- purple (1987)
Having found decently-large images of all of these and without faded colours, I managed to recreate a completely new set of this style of disc in GIMP, ready for this day two years ago - colours, fonts, spacing all correct. I made my 2016 disc in green, and my 2017 disc in brown, the two colours that hadn't been seen since the DVLA decided to be boring and just cycle round blue, purple and reddish-pink every three years. I've gone for red for the 2018 disc, but then it occurred to me that I could make other colours from the template I've got, and then... what about if I mixed up the colours a bit and made a ZX Spectrum inspired tax disc? After all, 1977-87 spans from the MK14 to round about the time of the end of the 128K toast rack; the later 1987-93 version (which would be considerably harder to reproduce!) is essentially "the Amstrad years".
I was going to put a 1985 Sinclair C5 on this disc until I realised it didn't need tax or insurance. I suppose a Nissan Leaf is an OK substitute (it's probably more along the lines of what Joe Public thought Sir Clive's "electric car" was going to be anyway).
I might even try to make a ZX81 or ZX80 inspired version (black and red, and blue and a bit of yellow respectively).
If anyone wants one of these (or even an original-colour version), give us a shout with the date and I'll send you a PNG file. Print it at 337 pixels per inch or 133 pixels per centimetre and it'll come out the right size.
They came in five colours, eventually:
- blue (1977, 1981, 1985)
- brown (1978, 1982, 1986)
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- green (1979, 1983)
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- red (1980, 1984)
- purple (1987)
Having found decently-large images of all of these and without faded colours, I managed to recreate a completely new set of this style of disc in GIMP, ready for this day two years ago - colours, fonts, spacing all correct. I made my 2016 disc in green, and my 2017 disc in brown, the two colours that hadn't been seen since the DVLA decided to be boring and just cycle round blue, purple and reddish-pink every three years. I've gone for red for the 2018 disc, but then it occurred to me that I could make other colours from the template I've got, and then... what about if I mixed up the colours a bit and made a ZX Spectrum inspired tax disc? After all, 1977-87 spans from the MK14 to round about the time of the end of the 128K toast rack; the later 1987-93 version (which would be considerably harder to reproduce!) is essentially "the Amstrad years".
I was going to put a 1985 Sinclair C5 on this disc until I realised it didn't need tax or insurance. I suppose a Nissan Leaf is an OK substitute (it's probably more along the lines of what Joe Public thought Sir Clive's "electric car" was going to be anyway).
I might even try to make a ZX81 or ZX80 inspired version (black and red, and blue and a bit of yellow respectively).
If anyone wants one of these (or even an original-colour version), give us a shout with the date and I'll send you a PNG file. Print it at 337 pixels per inch or 133 pixels per centimetre and it'll come out the right size.
Comments
/me runs away