Printer recommendations for decals?

[Marbles]

Hey Guys,

I know that decals may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I have had good results in the past, but for some reason.. not anymore (could be cause I drilled all the way through drywall, my printer was on the other side and I was fishing pieces of plaster out of it.. but that's a different story).


I don't know if it has anything to do with it, cause it could've happend before that, but the qualoty changed all of a sudden.. The ink just doesn't ' take'  anymore.

I have tried every setting in Gimp, new decalpaper, different decalpaper, checked if I use the same ink, but the black ink especially just comes out supergrainy. I used to have straight lines, it can't even do that anymore.

Cleansed it, deepcleansed it, checked it with paper: Perfect results.

Decalpaper however: Drama.


I have no idea what changed. I use an old Canon pixma printer and it used to serve me well. Just not anymore. Though paper is razor sharp.


Has anyone had this problem?

A problem I always had: Big pieces of black always had lines in them.

If anyone knows a printer how can print black without lines or whatever, I would love to know.

[BassVD]

I know there are different kinds of decal paper out there for either a laserjet or inkjet printer. Maybe it has something to do with that?

[Marbles]

Thanks for your reply. I thought so too, the effect is almost the same. Order from 1 supplier, and tried 3 different batches.
Thought it was old, so ordered new. The chance of him making the mistake 3 times is possible, but slim. Too make sure though, I bought new paper from another that clearly stated inkjet as well, so I can rule that out I'm afraid.

[motterpaul]

If you want something totally simple & cheap - I have the Brother QL-700 label maker. It just so happens the biggest size it prints is (almost) exactly 1590b size (2.4 x3.4). The only media options are white or clear labels, and the only "ink" color is black (I am not sure it is ink, it seems to be a different process, they don't sell ink replacements, just label cartridges).

I bought one used for $40 - new they are about $70. It gives you a software design program to make your labels. I have not tried the clear labels yet, but I would assume they are the same as decals - the only drawback being all you get for the printing is black.  After I apply the label I spray with matte verathane and allow to dry then I drill. Like I said, this is the quick & easy way - not pro by any means.

If you want color decals - I would assume any good color printer than can print onto clear media with adhesive would work fine.

[Hozy31]

The only thing that comes to mind is that if yor decal paper has somehow become staticly charged. I don't know if such a thing exists but it could be messing with electrostatic charge on the printers charged ink roller. Have you tried cutting a small piece of decal paper and taping it to a bit of paper lined up to a pre-printed image underneath and printing. This is how i do mine. I had a massive problem with a certain commercial tone transfer method when i was making a large, nearly A4 sized, PCB board. The toner transfer sheet always failed to print as it seemed to be creating its own static charge as it was going through the printer and the ink wouldn't stick properly.  

[motterpaul]

Are you talking about labels for enclosures? or transfers for PCBs?


Laser toner is not ink - it is plastic powder that heats up, liquefies and sticks to the paper according to the electrostatic image on the roller. Because it is essentially melted plastic,  if carefully reheated it will transfer and adhere to a copper surface. So you use a slick paper originally to make the negative and then iron it onto the copper plate carefully. Allow it to cool before etching.

[Sensei Tim]

have you done a print-head alignment?

also, check to see that you're printing at photo-quality resolution. We have a big 36" wide HP ink jet printer at work and if you print @ anything less that maximum resolution you will see lines between the rows that are printed.

I have an old HP photosmart printer at home that i print all my decals on. i've noticed that sometimes if i leave the printer on for a few days and try to print something that the image comes out grainy. i have to physically shut the printer off and turn it back on again and then the image is photo quality.  

One thing i will say is that there is a different in ink quality. cheaper is NOT always better.

I can't speak to GIMP settings - i use inkscape for all my layouts.

What happens if you try to print on regular photo paper?

[Marbles]

Thanks everyone for the replies. I think I did the reallignment, but I did it with paper..

It's for enclosures. I have used color and black before, with good results!

The thing is: It worked better, I know it can. Is it possible that the ink is old? That I got some old stock or something?


This is an old print (that was good):







And in this one you can see a lot of lines, and the black is a bit grainy:






You can see there are horizontal lines in the print and it's not really 'black'. It's grainy and a bit see through. Sure, it 'works' on this one, but I need it to print deeper black like before.




The weird thing is: I used 'regular' printsettings in Gimp before. The printing was 'meh'. I changed it to T-shirt transfers later and got great, sharp results. The only thing was: I needed to mirror the image before printing. No biggy.
Then from one day to the next, without any change, I stopped needing to mirror the image and it still printed sharp. Awesome, no clue why, but it worked, so I didn't give it any thought.

Because of this I suspect something in the settings. But paper prints razorscharp images. I have selected all kinds of Photopaper as printoptions (glossy, matte), plain paper, but nothing seems to work.

[Muadzin]

I've always used the office printer for decals, as I don't have a printer at home. At least at my previous place of work. I often had a LOT of prints go wrong though. Especially artwork that had lots of black in it would come out smudged. So I started to amend those large black areas into dark grey. That helped. Sometimes it was the paper. The place I ordered it from, a Dutch FX electronics retailer sometimes had different decal paper. The good didn't give much problems, the bad ones on the other hand had a bad habit of smudging or getting chewed up by the printer. So I started to buy laserjet decal from Ebay and boy did that solve my problems.

And then I got fired.

Not for printing private stuff, other reasons. Like government cutbacks.

And now I work at a university, which has big ass laserjet printers in the back office that I could use. If only I knew how to adjust the settings for special paper. Haven't found those yet. And probably never will as I just go to the campus print shop. Which has even better laserjet printers. By now they no longer look at me funny when I want something printed on decal paper and they know my requirements. At €0,33 per color A4 print I get good quality prints with each sheet big enough to provide decals for up to 6 125B enclosures. Since I only print a decal sheet on average once a month at €0,33 per print I'm not going to fork out any money on what is essentially an inferior machine to the one the print shop has.

[Marbles]

Sorry for getting back so late. Haven't had the best month.

But wow, that sounds like a great deal.

I would definitely do that too given the chance. It's just another part of the pedal, jack, knobs, graphics.. why not spend that little amount.

My work is unfortunately a paperless office as much as possible. There is a laser printer ofcourse, but not easy (for me) to tinker with the settings and not the best printer at that.


I order from a dutch online guitar fx store as well (Newtone?). They cut their paper, so I'm not sure if they changed...
To be sure I ordered another brand from some online store. Unfortunately, it had the same result. Could be that the webstore changed it into that exact brand ofcourse. In which case i'm still using the same.

Tried an old piece I had laying around too though, but no dice.

For my recent birthday I was given a new printer. I'm going to see how it is. My old one was 50 euros 7 years ago, and I think I had pretty good results over the years. This new one being a newer version and a slight step up (very slight) should mean it should give me better results I think/hope.


If not, I at least ruled out my printer. It's the most expensive test, but at least I know.

Paper could be an option. Ink a small option and otherwise, GIMP could be the cause. It's printer setting seem to be overruled sometimes. Just don't know by what :)

 

[Sensei Tim]

if you suspect that it might be GIMP, try printing to a pdf and see if the quality is poor or not.

From my experience when you get lines that are parallel to the direction that the printhead travels it's either a print head alignment problem or it's printing in draft mode (or simiilar)

[Marbles]

You may be right. It was also on the planning to do so. It's not that I ignored it (eventhough sometimes things get lost in my head) ;)

I did the allignment. I did it with paper though and it was fine. I maybe should do it with decalpaper though.. that could make a difference. Then again, when I was having good results, I have done the allignment on paper too. And that seemed to transfer fine to decalpaper.

 Feels like a waste of paper, but then again, getting a new printer is that too ;)

God it's bizarre how a stupid thing like this is holding me back. I have an unboxed Klon, Diamond Comp, Green Muff, Cream Puff, Timmy, OCD and more. I need (en)closure!!