Onion Skin Paper

February 13, 2010 5:46 PM

Onion Skin Stationery

I love to type letters to friends and on Onion Skin Paper. My Typewriter just died and I am left now with only my computer. Hive Mind...Is there any computer printer that I can buy that will print out a letter using Onion Skin Paper?
Every printer that I have tried so far eats up the paper or just jams the onion skin paper in the printer.
Thank you for your help!

posted by blast to computers & internet (8 answers total)

What about carefully taping (with removeable 'magic' tape) the onionskin paper to a sheet of regular printer paper?
posted by fish tick at 7:05 PM on February 13, 2010

See if you can find an old "daisy wheel" printer - the one I had circa 1984 operated exactly like a typewriter in terms of moving the paper through, and even "typed" (as opposed to dot-matrix.) I don't know what your driver support will be, though.
posted by sanko at 7:08 PM on February 13, 2010

That is a great idea fish tick, I am off to the store to get some tape.

sanko....I have my Mac genius friend looking into your suggestion as well.

Thank you both for your help.
posted by blast at 7:15 PM on February 13, 2010

You might be able to find a more modern printer that will be gentle enough for this. The key is to find a printer that will let you feed it one sheet at a time. Generally, printer like this will have a flap that you can open on the back that will let you guide one sheet in and pass through the printing apparatus without bending or warping the paper. I've used printers like this to print on thick watercolor paper and things I've already decorated, and it's really for paper that's too thick to be curved. However, you might use this, in combination with a sturdy reusable backing like a thin cardboard, to get the results you want.
posted by Mizu at 7:33 PM on February 13, 2010

Many of the laser printers have the feature at Mizu mentioned where you can hand feed the paper in and then it passes straight through and comes out the other side (instead of being curved around the rollers). In our printer there are panels that open on the front and back to make it work.
posted by metahawk at 7:55 PM on February 13, 2010

Thanks Mizu and Metahawk for the information about hand feeding paper one sheet at a time.
I am going to get a bunch of different papers together, my onion skin as well as some thicker watercolor paper, and take them around NYC this week and see who will let me test drive some printers. I may have to wait for a computer show to do this, but perhaps my Cannon Printer Repair place will run a sheet or two for me.
Thank you again for your suggestions.
posted by blast at 6:03 AM on February 14, 2010

fold over about 1/8 of an inch on the short side of a regular sheet of 8.5 x 11 copy paper. "slide" the (edge of the) onion skin into the "sleeve" you've just made and then use the hand-feed tray (feeding the fold first).
I haven't done this with onion skin, but I've done it with various thin and otherwise delicate papers, mostly with good success. (YRMV)
posted by segatakai at 8:43 AM on February 14, 2010

Thanks Segatakai....I just found out that my friend has a hand feed tray on his printer, and I am going to test it out tomorrow with your fold suggestion.
posted by blast at 7:12 PM on February 14, 2010