Im having difficulty with a laminate paper I purchased from a surf shop. It runs through the printer fine but when its wet out on a color board (especially black and all darker colors) you can see where the paper is trimmed. Keep in mind this paper for surfboard lamination (so they say) but Im not all for it if this is happening. Where is the best place to get logo paper that obviously wets out nice and can be totally transparent.
Also a quick question further into the matter. Are there special inks out there that will boost the color of a lam paper when its laminated onto a board. Im doing a balsa project soon and I feel that even with the laminate paper thats inked, youll still be able to see the wood grain thats right through it.
Rice paper usually comes sized or unsized.
From Wikipedia:
Sizing is used during paper manufacture to reduce the paper’s tendency when dry to absorb liquid, with the goal of allowing inks and paints to remain on the surface of the paper and to dry there, rather than be absorbed into the paper. This provides a more consistent, economical, and precise printing, painting, and writing surface. This is achieved by curbing the paper fibers’ tendency to absorb liquids by capillary action. In addition, sizing affects abrasiveness, creasibility, finish, printability, smoothness, and surface bond strength and decreases surface porosity and fuzzing.
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Sized rice paper is translucent and doesn’t go complete clear when glassed. It’s fine for glassing over white or light colored surfaces, but It shows when glassed over darker colors.
Unsized RP glasses completely clear, but inkjet printing on it, because it’s more porous, is more of a challenge because the ink tends to spread more.
I’ve had some success inkjet printing on unsized RP on a wide format printer by slowing down the drying time between head passes and reducing the suction that holds the paper down to the platin as it advances through the printer.
Alright fair enough. Where can I get this unsized rice paper it seems like the stuff I need.
Where are you located?
Do you have a matte side and a shiney side on your paper?
The unsized RP is called silky medium and silky heavy. The heavy being thicker than that medium. I think FoamEZ sells it in letter size sheets.
I’ve bought some bigger sheets from Mitches in Solana beach and RhinoArt in Encinitas a long time ago. I’m guessing they still stock it.
These people sell it in sheets as well it as rolls:
http://www.mindspring.com/~dba-interwest/www/web10.htm
I actually bought that stuff believe it or not and still have it ^. Its tough to print if you don’t feed it through the inkjet right. Plus I wanted to test it out before I lammed on a peice of scrap foam. Will this paper wet out in dark colors? I have the silky heavy.
AND also when the paper is printed on, the colors look REEEAL faded. That was the reason why I didn’t trust using this stuff so I stored it away.
The best way to get a good non transparent black on any kind of RP is to silkscreen it.
The quality you’ll get using an inkjet, has a lot to do with the kind of printer you’re printing on.
Image quality wise, the best results I’ve had on silky RP has been on an Epson 7890.
I’ve also had good results with an HP z3100, but it is a real bitch to load silky RP on it.
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