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I've known there's a couple of sites who can make sheets of dry transfer type from a layout you send to them, with the same quality as the old letraset sheets, plus they make it in the pantone color you choose. It's great for such a lot of things as making comps on the real paper/material you're going to use, texts directly applied on walls/panels, etc. The drawback is not only that it's not cheap, but moreover the large amount of time they need to prepare and deliver it to you. Does anyone know if there's any chance for a do-it-yourself? I suppose it must be some kind of photographic process, but i dunno if it's necessary any complex equipment one can't afford all by himself...

One of the first hits from a quick google search:
http://www.pulsarprofx.com/decalpro/

Not a true DIY approach, but a product that you run through a laser printer.

Not quite what you're asking for, but if wet transfer decals would do it for you, laser printer decal papers are available for less than one US dollar per sheet.

3M used to manufacture photosensitive do-it-yourself dry transfer sheets in black and white. You prepared a negative, exposed the sheet to UV light, then used a chemical solution to wash off the unexposed areas. Upside: instant dry-transfer lettering; downside: you had to buy a whole box and at least a quart (IIRC) of developed.

Of course, this was Once Upon a Time…

The process must be as oldnick says, and the waste of material the reason for the high prices... I dunno the printer decal papers HVB says, I'll check out, and the decalpro machine found by jabez seems really interesting and worth of investigation... Thank you all! But if anyone works in Collodoc, Paris, and can tell me how they do it...