Printing White With An Inkjet - A Possible Solution?

[Robert Darwent]

Following recent discussion in the following threads regarding making reproduction dials;

My latest addition - Radialva Groom

Repro Dials

the problem of printing white and other light shades on to decal (waterslide transfer) paper was again highlighted.

Whilst searching the internet to research the problem, I came across the following product which hopefully may offer the glimmer of a cheap acceptable solution;

http://www.craftycomputerpaper.co.uk/.-I...PJ317I.htm

At first sight it appears to be little more than standard inkjet decal paper with the added bonus of not requiring a protective spray coat to make it waterproof, but then near the bottom of the description it states;

"It is an egg shell white decal that can be made clear by the application of any oil based varnish."

This got me thinking! If you were to substitute a very light grey with an inkjet printer to print off a white dial legend with a transparent background, the ink would protect the white of the decal paper where the legend was so that with the application of an oil based varnish the background would become clear and only the legend would remain. In effect, you would be printing an opaque white on to a clear film.

To illustrate with the Radialava Super Groom dial from the earlier thread;

       

the first image is a scan of the original dial against a white background. It can be seen that the station name legend inside the centre oval is actually a light grey, but in the second image of the same dial mounted in the set it appears white due to viewing against the dark cabinet. So I believe the eye will be 'tricked' sufficiently for it to work.

Obviously, this is all theory and unproven assumption at present. But I've ordered several sheets of the 'Lazertran' paper to experiment with and will report back in due course.

Regards

[Bushbaby]

Hi Robert,
This appears very logical and it will be interesting if you can acheive your (our) desired result. I've also seen the paper from the craftycomputerpaper and although it appears expensive I think that it will do the job that we want.

Regards

Rob

[Robert Darwent]

I've found a little more information on the manufacturers website regarding the use of the 'Lazertran' decal paper.

http://www.lazertran.com/products/lazert...inkjet.htm

The paper seems very versatile and can be used on a variety of materials. For application on absorbant surfaces such as wood, it is possible to 'melt' the decal into the surface with "a good coat of real turpentine (white spirit or substitutes will not work)".

The website further states;

"After application the decal will dry with a white background. To make this clear and show the surface colour and texture below, apply 2 or 3 coats of any oil/spirit based varnish. Good ones are polyurethane, and sprays like Holts Clear Car Lacquer all applied in fine coats until the finish is shiny."

It remains to be seen just how 'clear' the paper goes after being treated with an oil based varnish, hopefully enough to allow it to be used as the replacement for a semi-transparent reproduction dial.

In any case, certainly worth investigating further and experimenting with I feel.

Regards

[Radio Fixer]

Be interesting to see if it works Robert.

What a shame there isnt access to an Alpes printer service who would run off our artwork. I did have someone but he's now out of the hobby and I understand the printer was getting past it anyway.

Here's white decals on a panel he did for me. Excellent and under several coats of lacquer very hard to see that they are decals.

   

[AlanBeckett]

I've been maintaining a low profile but the above has galvanised me.

In the attic I have an ALPS (no e) MD-1000 Printer and a full set of cartridges. They include white, gold, silver and other metallic colours, plus the usual ones. It uses a thermal printing process which might make it a bit dodgy on ordinary film, but I guess Laserjet or Copier film would survive. It used to work splendidly, and the drivers and utilities which it came with allowed you to do the most alarming things.

Now for the bad news. When I got it I was running Win98. As far as I know the latest drivers are for Win2000, and I'm not sure that even then the full range of utilities were supported. I've also lost the original CD although there's plenty on the net. The cartridges are still available. I tried it last year with a Linux system and it worked fine, but only as a Printer.

So, if anyone fancies his chances and has a suitable system, it's in Burton doing nothing.

Alan

[Robert Darwent]

Hi Alan,

I researched the ALPS range of printers a few years ago and I've recently been doing a few internet searches for any latest comments about the machines. From what I've read they became obsolete 4 to 5 years back now but cartridges will still be available for the next few years at least.

I must admit I'm very tempted to give one of the printers a try! Not sure where I would fit it in though, I already have a couple of A4 and a largish A3 printer taking up a lot of space.

I don't believe running on Win XP would be a problem, I've seen drivers on a couple of sites recently during my searches. Failing that I've a couple of spare laptops here that I could easily install Win 98 on and use solely just to print to an ALPS.

However having said all that, what has always put me off from trying to obtain an ALPS in the past is having to buy a dedicated printer and specialist ink cartridges. Like my approach in finding a way to reproduce the back-lit Ekco A22 dials, I have similarly been trying to find an acceptable method that anybody could use and that is reasonably cheap. Hence, trying this 'new' sort of decal paper that has become available.

Anyhow, lets see if Gary or someone else wants to give it a try before me and I'll give it some further thought. I very much appreciate your kind offer of making the printer available though.

Regards

[Tedzed1]

It also seems that drivers are available for Windows XP, but they are on windows server 2003 edition, also note that the printer connects to
a parallel port only, the parallel to USB converters do not seem to work with this printer.

[AlanBeckett]

Actually I have a USB/Parallel Port converter and used it with the ALPS on this PC - Vista HP. It worked fine.
The thing to beware of is the definition of 'works'. It will work fine as an ordinary Printer. It's all the twiddly bits that you don't get.
You'd better have a play young Paul.

Alan

[Geaney]

Sounds good - shame those printers went off the market.

On a different tack I'm leaning towards your actual silk screen printing -

http://www.reuels.com/reuels/Silk-Screen...tions.html

- the photo emulsion method - section 4 on the web page.

All the materials seem to be readily available at Amazon (and not prohibitively expensive) so I might give this a shot.

Nothing ventured, etc. Oh, I should ask, has anyone already given this a try?

Cheers, John

[Radio Fixer]

Well that Alpes that Alan has is a gem for someone but alas it cant be me Robert. I simply dont have the room for any more stuff and at the mo; no time. If anyone is prepared to take it on I can tell you the results are to a proper professional standard. I had white (as shown) and black on true gold done on one and they are as good as it gets.

I looked into self silk screening and gave up! There are all sorts of problems like getting the correct 'silk' (a lot of the DIY ones just wont work at 6 point! !), exposure, inks, heat, making a big enough (for front panels) and strong enough frame and so on. For multiple colours registration then rears its head and would be beyond me.

For a single colour, and definetly more than one, a printer on to a film, photo material, or maybe a decal is the only practical way I found.

But John if you can crack it I'm sure we would all love to hear about it.

Gary