I’ve been using Epson inkjet printers for the past 10 years, and have always been concerned mainly with high resolution print quality. But I’ve always noticed a tendency for cracks to appear in my home-printed decals, usually forming as straight lines in a perpendicular pattern. This problem is especially bad with plain black ink.
I’m guessing that the ink is shrinking as it dries, and is too brittle to stretch without tearing apart. Would this be a general problem with all brands of ink, or is it only with Epson? Has anybody found a brand of printer** with ink where decals do not crack when the ink is drying?
** NOTE: I always use only the same brand of ink as the printer, to avoid potential compatibility issues.
Epsons type of ink is different then the ink process used by Cannon and HP. Epsons use dyes, while Cannon HP use inks. Epsons shake the ink from the nozel, wile Cannon and HP microheat the ink causing it to expand and proper itself from the print head.
You can use HP or Cannon without issue, but you have to apply a fixative and “seal” the decal before you dip it in water.
If you want to make black and white prints, or gold leaf prints, or poster like waxy prints, a color laser does an excellent job.
Thanks, Don, for replying to my post! It’s a relief to know that not all inkjet printer inks behave like Epsons on decals.
My old Epson all-in-one is on its last leg, so now is the perfect time for me to replace it with an HP, Interestingly, when I was in charge of databases in my previous position, HP was the only brand of printers I really felt comfortable with.
I’ll have a glance at what is available in laser printers (as opposed to inkjets), but IIRC they are way more expensive than inkjets. [Unless replacement toner is cheaper than ‘jet’ ink, where the printer manufactures really make their money!]
I have an HP 3310 which uses the “02” ink cartridges - cyan, lt cyan, magenta, lt magenta, yellow, black- for printing. Because if the cost difference, I have been buying Office Depot remanufactured cartridges fir several years, now. I print many of my own decals and have had no problem with ink quality. I would suggest that you look into an HP or similar inkjet model for better quality printing. Given that the cost of a new printer is relatively low- check Walmart- your ink costs will be more significant than the initial printer purchase price in the course of a year or so. Cedarwoodron
For sure, I’ve always spent at least 4 times as much money on replacement ink cartridges as for the printers themselves over the period that I owned them!
I have used an Epson Stylus Photo R200 for many years with no problems. It is a photo quality printer, and uses 6 ink cartriges for the colors. This is a much better way of going than a color printer with one “color” cartrige. WIth one cartrige, you always throw away some good ink when one color runs out. [+o(]
You’ll have the best luck printing decals with a laser. Actually, when you count the cost per page, over a period of years, a laser will be more economical than an inkjet. An inkjet’s strength over a laser is printing high quality photos, but you won’t need that for decals or basic printing.
I have been pretty happy with my HP 720C. However, I also felt that black decals were particularly difficult to print, and they developed a “crinkled” pattern that was find for a weathered structure but no always what I wanted. This is an old printer, and the ink has been getting increasingly hard to even find, so we upgraded to a new Canon Pixma printer last year.
This is a better printer, overall. I like the decals better, and the ink doesn’t run during the sealing process like the HP ink did.
I’m sure that is true. However, I checked the prices for HP LaserJet All-In-One machines on the BestBuy web site, and the least expensive one I could find was $450. I don’t know how pricey toner cartridges are compared with ink, but I’m sure it isn’t cheap [even if I don’t have to replenish it as often]. One other thing I thought about: Whenever one of my inkjets has some problem that I can’t fix myself, I can just dash out and buy another one; if the same thing were to happen with a $500 printer, I’d feel compelled to send it out for service - which would take much longer and still cost $$.
WOW… I hadn’t heard about the HP ink running! [:O] That’s enough to make me rethink my original preference for HP. Thanks Mr.B for sharing that!
I have an HP 720 and am having no problem buying ink cartridges for it.
It is old, but it sure prints well. A couple of year ago I bought a new computer that was on sale and it came bundled with another HP inkjet printer. That printer is still in its package in the closet.
That’s why you ahve to seal HP prints before you dip them in water!. Cannons do it to. But they are a lot less offensive then HP’s in terms of ink bleed when wet. As a general rule, I seal both before dipping by applying several VERY LIGHT coats of clear coat or dull coat. Too much and the HP will run.
I do like color laser jets. You can buy them for $150 online. The colors aren’t nearly as vivid (color space YVC gamut isn’t nearly as big) and they appear a bit “waxy”. But are very stable. That’s why I like lasers for things like “poster prints” where vivid wasn’t necessary back in the day
That’s true, but I was painting on the sealant, Microscale’s Liquid Decal Film. If you put inkjet decals into water without sealing, you will have a blank decal within a few seconds. I have verified this experimentally, although I wasn’t really trying to do an experiment when it happened. [banghead]
There are other brands (eg. Brother, Samsung, etc.) that are much cheaper, and should be just as good. As far as color lasers, if you wait for a sale, the cost would be close to getting just one sheet of custom decals done, if you can even find someone willing to do it. And you don’t have to worry about ink drying out if you only need occasional color prints.
One problem with the HP printers is that they sometime tell you the cartridge is empty when it isn’t & it won’t print. ( check the internet ). Had this happen & bought a new one $$$ and got the same message. Tried every solution i found on the internet & wound up scraping it & bought an Epson which has better resolution & am happy with.
I just printed a color sample on plain paper with my Brother HL-4570CDW laser printer. I took it upstairs and wiped it repeatedly with a wet paper towel. I detected NO color transfer.
This may mean that this printer would be ideal for printing decals, except that:
I used plain paper, not decal paper
The artwork reproduction may be inadequate. I’ll note that this particular printer has produced a good number of very acceptable color prints.
I purchased this printer because I grew exceedingly tired of having my inkjet general purpose printer (Canon iP4200) fail a nozzle check and thus compel me to do a wasteful cleaning or replace a “gone-bad” ink tank. I’ve had a b&w laser printer for several years for special-purpose uses, and found that I can let it sit unused for months and not have a “clogged head”–prints great on startup.
I SPECULATE that my color laser printer will make adequate waterproof decals. If I had appropriate decal paper, I would take the implied next step. But I don’t.
Like I said earlier, a laser is the best printer for decals (and everything else except photos). No SPECULATION necessary!. You won’t have any color transfer or bleeding.