Author Topic: Printing decals  (Read 1235 times)

Offline Plodder

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Printing decals
« on: July 02, 2021, 12:54:23 AM »
I've had a couple of goes of printing my own decals. Inkjet iprinter on clear decals paper. I'm pleased with the results,colour and definition, but when  I  apply them the colours  are  translucent, and  don't look anywhere near a good.. Anyone  tried this , and  any tips.?

Offline Alexis

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Re: Printing decals
« Reply #1 on: July 02, 2021, 01:10:37 AM »
Have you tried using white decal paper ?


Alexis
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Body and life is a vessel we use to travel the planet . Femininity is the gift , The miracle comes from what we do with it .

Offline coyotemagic

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Re: Printing decals
« Reply #2 on: July 02, 2021, 05:31:30 AM »
Increase the color density on your printer, then seal with a clear acrylic.
Cheers, Bud
"All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream in the dark recesses of the night awake in the day to find all was vanity. But the dreamers of day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, and make it possible." -T. E. Lawrence

Offline Plodder

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Re: Printing decals
« Reply #3 on: July 02, 2021, 05:39:37 AM »
Hi Alexis,I dont want a white border on the decals,and cant cut them accurate enough to leave no edge. Hi Coyotemagic, colour from printer is good, I use high quality photo setting,and  clear coat.

Offline hsmed

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Re: Printing decals
« Reply #4 on: July 02, 2021, 04:30:29 PM »
Hi Plodder

If you use an inkjet printer, there is - as far as I know - no way around using white decal paper, if you want to avoid the background colour to bleed through.

But you can avoid a white edge by using the colour of the subject as the background for your decal. At the picture, I have applied the white 'Red Horse' lettering to a bright red area of the car. The way I made the decal was, that I drew a large red square and filled in the white lettering - then printing the whole square at a white decal sheet. In this way I have the white letters with a narrow red frame.



If you look closely at the picture, you can see a small colour difference between the red paint and the decal, but this can be minimized by adjusting the colour at the decal - however, I was satisfied with this.

You can see, the white is a little pink due to the red paint - this is due to the decal paper itself not being 100% opaque. This could also be minimized by applying two decals on top of each other or by applying a white decal square before the decal with the lettering.

However, this technique is hard to use if your background is not in a uniform colour as in my example.

Another way is to use a laser printer with white toner. You can buy a white toner kit for some laser printers - see link - but I have not tried it myself.....yet :-)
https://www.ghost-white-toner.com/

Hope, you can use some of this - and if you succeed it would be great to see the results :-)

Offline kensar

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Re: Printing decals
« Reply #5 on: July 02, 2021, 09:53:20 PM »
One way I overcome this limitation with inkjet printed decals is to paint a white background.  I have a Silhouette cutter that makes this somewhat easier.  For example:





In this case, the decal is printed with a black edge to hide any inaccuracies with the outline shape.

Offline RLWP

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Re: Printing decals
« Reply #6 on: July 03, 2021, 06:37:15 AM »
I've had terrible results with clear paper, excellent results with white.

I've usually managed to lose the white edge with either paint or weathering

Richard
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Offline Plodder

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Re: Printing decals
« Reply #7 on: July 05, 2021, 07:55:23 AM »
Thanks for the replies I will try with white paper.

Offline Alexis

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Re: Printing decals
« Reply #8 on: July 27, 2021, 10:57:12 PM »
Lets us know how this works out for you .


Alexis
Hurra ! , Ich Leben Noch
Body and life is a vessel we use to travel the planet . Femininity is the gift , The miracle comes from what we do with it .