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Successful laser printing of decals?


cmatthewbacon

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Not being the owner of a colour laser printer, I took some artwork and  5 sheets each of Specialist Crafts (I think they are what used to be CraftyComputerPaper) white and transparent paper to my local print shop. They've done loads of work for me and people I know, ranging from glossy brochures to roll-up posters and large photo prints, so I have no reasoon to think that they don't know what they're doing. Anyway, they just can't get the ink in their colour laser to stick properly to the paper. They swear they have followed the instructions (each sheet comes with a copy of the how-to). The instructions mention that the paper must be at room temperature to prevent the ink dragging, but it's been in the office for a week, and it's not exactly "cold and damp winter months" when the instructions say that this could be a problem...

 

I'm at a bit of a loss. Are some laser printers able to print decals and others not (their printer is brand new, so it's state of the art, today)?

 

More importantly, how am I going to get my decal artwork printed? Anyone know of a "known good" combination of paper and printer that definitely works?

 

best,

M.

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Very strange, printing decals with a laser printer is generally very easy, more so as there are no inks that can run off the paper as happens with inkjets.

I've been using a cheap Epson C1700 with Experts's Choice decal paper for years without any problem, The only thing I have to do is prepare the artwork, put the paper in the tray, give the print command and done.

Of course my printer is not capable of printing at very high resolutions, don't know if higher resolution printers may have problems, in any case what happened to your printing service guys sounds more like a problem with paper. The paper I use is specifically designed for use with laser printers (the same company also have papers for inkjets), might be worth trying this and see if the results are better. I bought my sheets in the past from Little-Cars and always had a great service, here's the exact paper I'm using:

 

https://www.modellingtools.co.uk/clear-decal-paper-for-laser-10242-p.asp

 

Of course there's also a white paper for the same laser printers. Personally I use the white paper very rarely, as I prefer to print on clear paper and apply on a background previously painted in white, but nothing prevents you from using the white paper. IMHO at little more than £ 3 per sheet it's worth trying.

 

If this fails, drop me a PM, I may be able to help further

Edited by Giorgio N
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That's really annoying.

 

I experienced similar once and it turned out that my ink-jet decal paper had been mis-labelled as laser printing paper.

 

Luckily, I discovered who was responsible and gave him a very stern talking-to. 

 

By using a mirror 🙄🙄

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At work we sometimes print on high gloss adhesive with a silver surface. This stuff is very thick and it always seems to not work properly. The toner rubs off very easily. A service technician told us the fusing process wasn't working and helped us out. The trick that solved it for us was setting up the printer for very thick transparency sheets via driver. Then we dialed in a higher-than-normal temperature and also slowed down the fusing speed in the printers config for that type of medium. The paper is VERY hot when it comes out, but the toner is fused as it should.

We have a pretty high-endish Kyocera printer. The adjustments are hidden deep inside the printers configuration. AFAIK they cannot be made via driver setup.

 

HTH.

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Actually there are a few laser printers that use white toners and these can print white over clear decal film.

The problem is of course cost as these printers are generally more expensive than what most of us will want to spend for a home printer (talking about 3 grand or more here).

Then there's Ghost White Toner, a German company that make white toner cartridges that can replace the black cartridge in a number of color laser printers. Costs for these are lower but still usually higher than what most of use would be willing to spend. They offer a "small bundle" with a printer and a white toner cartridge for around £550, that while expensive is something that starts to be accessible... the day they offered a white cartridge for my Epson I'd buy it immediately. It would be cool if they made cartridges for cheap B/W only printers, unfortunately they only do them for large and expensive color printers. Mind, these cartridges all cost above £100, so they are not a cheap solution anyway

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  • 1 month later...
On 5/16/2019 at 9:13 AM, Giorgio N said:

Actually there are a few laser printers that use white toners and these can print white over clear decal film.

The problem is of course cost as these printers are generally more expensive than what most of us will want to spend for a home printer (talking about 3 grand or more here).

Then there's Ghost White Toner, a German company that make white toner cartridges that can replace the black cartridge in a number of color laser printers. Costs for these are lower but still usually higher than what most of use would be willing to spend. They offer a "small bundle" with a printer and a white toner cartridge for around £550, that while expensive is something that starts to be accessible... the day they offered a white cartridge for my Epson I'd buy it immediately. It would be cool if they made cartridges for cheap B/W only printers, unfortunately they only do them for large and expensive color printers. Mind, these cartridges all cost above £100, so they are not a cheap solution anyway

You could do what I did and buy a secondhand printer for £50 to go with the Ghost white toner. Look for the cheapest printer/toner combination, I think my HP setup cost me £275 in total

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On 5/15/2019 at 1:43 PM, cmatthewbacon said:

Not being the owner of a colour laser printer, I took some artwork and  5 sheets each of Specialist Crafts (I think they are what used to be CraftyComputerPaper) white and transparent paper to my local print shop. They've done loads of work for me and people I know, ranging from glossy brochures to roll-up posters and large photo prints, so I have no reasoon to think that they don't know what they're doing. Anyway, they just can't get the ink in their colour laser to stick properly to the paper. They swear they have followed the instructions (each sheet comes with a copy of the how-to). The instructions mention that the paper must be at room temperature to prevent the ink dragging, but it's been in the office for a week, and it's not exactly "cold and damp winter months" when the instructions say that this could be a problem...

 

I'm at a bit of a loss. Are some laser printers able to print decals and others not (their printer is brand new, so it's state of the art, today)?

 

More importantly, how am I going to get my decal artwork printed? Anyone know of a "known good" combination of paper and printer that definitely works?

 

best,

M.

I think it depends on the temperature that the printer fuses the toners at, I suspect that the more expensive/recent the printer is, the more eco it will be. 

 

I have three laser printers, two bought new as end of line models for £50 each, the other was a low use secondhand one off ebay - again £50. All work with all the decal papers I have tried but stick with the manufacturers toner and don't be tempted to buy cheap toners.

 

The printers I have are:-

Dell 1250c LED printer, this produces good colours

 

Konica Minolta Magicolour 1600W, produces the best blacks

 

HP laserjet Pro 200, running Ghost white toner.

 

Non of the above will replicate greys suitably or light/pale colours well.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Some years ago I had access to a decent quality laser printer and printed off several sheets of RAF font style letters and numbers. It was fine, as long as I remembered to use laser printer decal paper! Was only black toner but the sheets were really good, with no smudging or bleeding. Am still using them after nearly 5 years.

I also printed off some fictional national markings for a 'what if' project. To add colour to my design I printed the black element first, cut it out, put in water to release the design then put that on a corner of white decal paper, added colour by brush, cut it out again and finally put it in water a second time to get the finished design onto my model. Bit fiddly, but gets around the issue of not having a colour printer or white ink and easier to paint on a flat surface.

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