It was actually printed on sticky transparent waterslide decal paper. I originally wanted it to be white but most printers cannot print in white believe it or not. I tried yellow and grey but it blended in and did not look so good. I really wanted to use white vinyl lettering but the text was too small and would tear. When I said this was a pain to put together it really was. Learned a lot about how to paint metal properly during this process as well.