Water-slide decals on an ink jet printer?
February 28, 2022 6:56 PM Subscribe
How do I print decent quality old-school water-slide decals on an ink-jet printer? Preferably something involving as many hyphens as possible.
I’ve got a Canon iP8720 and want to try my hand at making decals. Reviews of results online seem split between abject failure and hubristic triumph, which is never a good sign. Doesn’t need to be super durable or last 10 years. I’m just ignorant about what kind/brand of paper/medium is right. I’m also seeing suggestions of spray coatings, so what there? Krylon has worked for me on traditional media, so that maybe?
This is for one-off stuff so sending out to a print shop is off the table.
This is not what you asked for, but I used to buy old model kits and sometimes the water-slide decals would be unusable due to age. I would scan them in, clean them up, then print them on clear (matte) full-sheet labels (Amazon example), then exacto-knife the decal/sticker to size and stick it on. Worked pretty well and quite durable, especially for old toys and kit-bashing and such. A limitation is that you can't print "white," or a white backing.
posted by jabah at 7:03 AM on March 1, 2022
posted by jabah at 7:03 AM on March 1, 2022
I can't offer any guidance on water-slide media to print on, but you're almost certainly going to want a spray coating like Krylon Preserve-It to protect your inkjet print. The specs on the Canon iP8720 say it has a "pigmented black ink" but makes no mention of the colors, which suggests they are dye-based. With aqueous inkjet prints, pigmented inks are much more durable and water-fast than dye-based, especially on less-porous or non-porous surfaces. Being an aqueous (water-based) rather than a solvent-based ink, even after the print has dried, if it comes in contact with water, it can start to run. The less porous the surface is, the worse this effect tends to be. At least, try a sacrificial test on your media of choice to see what you'll be dealing with. Surface protectants rated for inkjet prints are preferred, as they will tend to not "re-wet" the print and cause the running you're hoping to avoid in the first place, but sometimes you can get away with just a spray-on clear acrylic.
posted by xedrik at 7:54 AM on March 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by xedrik at 7:54 AM on March 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
I use an Epson ink jet printer with this paper. I don't think the brand of printer matters too much but get laser paper for lasers and ink jet paper for ink jets. I suppose some inks might work better than others but I've only used the Epson so I can't say. I spray 3-4 coats of Krylon gloss onto the paper after I print it. A soak in warm water to release the decal. I've had a lot of failures with the release so I usually print 4-5 decals onto the same sheet to account for this.
I find with this paper there is a real tight window between when the decal won't release and when it's too soft to work with. It's a lot of trial and error but I've ultimately had good results.
Various model paint manufacturers sell decal fixture which can help a bit with applying the decal and smoothing it out. I've had good luck with Vallejo and Microscale.
posted by bondcliff at 8:40 AM on March 1, 2022
I find with this paper there is a real tight window between when the decal won't release and when it's too soft to work with. It's a lot of trial and error but I've ultimately had good results.
Various model paint manufacturers sell decal fixture which can help a bit with applying the decal and smoothing it out. I've had good luck with Vallejo and Microscale.
posted by bondcliff at 8:40 AM on March 1, 2022
Preferably something involving as many hyphens as possible
I'm not clear on what you mean by this - you're more interested in text decals rather than images?
I did a bunch of water-slide text decals on an ink-jet about a decade ago as labels for DIY guitar effects pedals. I didn't put a lot of effort into finding the best label sheets, just whatever seemed like a good deal from a reputable eBay seller (or maybe an online store that sold DIY pedal parts? I honestly don't remember.) Create a Word doc, use that to monkey around with the size & font & colors, print some test sheets on regular paper so I could at least get an approximate feel for how the end result would fit & look, then print on the label paper.
I’m also seeing suggestions of spray coatings, so what there?
Yes. Multiple comments on various forums strongly suggested that I do a clear coat over the labels before applying them, to increase the strength of the wet label as it was positioned & to ensure the ink didn't smear or break up. I used what I had handy, which was a MinWax spray polyurethane. It yellowed a bit while drying, which I didn't care about, but I'm sure Krylon has a variety of good clear coat products that won't do that.
I also did a coat or two over the whole pedal after the decals were in place and dried.
Reviews of results online seem split between abject failure and hubristic triumph, which is never a good sign.
Ehhhhhhh . . . I mean, most of my problems and disappointments had a LOT more to do with my inexperience and lack of talent for graphic design or whatever rather than any sort of problems with the paper or printer. I wouldn't get too worked up about online reviews.
Like bondcliff says, make sure you get the inkjet decal paper. There is both clear-backed and white-backed decal paper. With the clear-backed stuff the color of the surface you're applying the decals to will alter the final color of the decal if you're using lighter color ink. With the white-backed decal paper the colors of the decals will be more "accurate" but of course any part of the decal that doesn't have ink on it will be white. (And this would also be how you would get a white part of the decal.) Maybe not such a big deal if you're putting a decal on a white coffee mug, but if you want like bright yellow text on a black coffee mug you'll need to make the non-text part black and probably get real familiar with an Exacto knife.
The only other thing I might suggest is to buy more sheets than you think you'll need for whatever this project is. There's a good chance you'll wind up with unused blank sections of decal paper, and even if your printer can deal with partial sheets of paper, it might be more trouble than it's worth to align your decals properly to do that, easier to just start a fresh sheet.
posted by soundguy99 at 9:55 AM on March 1, 2022 [2 favorites]
I'm not clear on what you mean by this - you're more interested in text decals rather than images?
I did a bunch of water-slide text decals on an ink-jet about a decade ago as labels for DIY guitar effects pedals. I didn't put a lot of effort into finding the best label sheets, just whatever seemed like a good deal from a reputable eBay seller (or maybe an online store that sold DIY pedal parts? I honestly don't remember.) Create a Word doc, use that to monkey around with the size & font & colors, print some test sheets on regular paper so I could at least get an approximate feel for how the end result would fit & look, then print on the label paper.
I’m also seeing suggestions of spray coatings, so what there?
Yes. Multiple comments on various forums strongly suggested that I do a clear coat over the labels before applying them, to increase the strength of the wet label as it was positioned & to ensure the ink didn't smear or break up. I used what I had handy, which was a MinWax spray polyurethane. It yellowed a bit while drying, which I didn't care about, but I'm sure Krylon has a variety of good clear coat products that won't do that.
I also did a coat or two over the whole pedal after the decals were in place and dried.
Reviews of results online seem split between abject failure and hubristic triumph, which is never a good sign.
Ehhhhhhh . . . I mean, most of my problems and disappointments had a LOT more to do with my inexperience and lack of talent for graphic design or whatever rather than any sort of problems with the paper or printer. I wouldn't get too worked up about online reviews.
Like bondcliff says, make sure you get the inkjet decal paper. There is both clear-backed and white-backed decal paper. With the clear-backed stuff the color of the surface you're applying the decals to will alter the final color of the decal if you're using lighter color ink. With the white-backed decal paper the colors of the decals will be more "accurate" but of course any part of the decal that doesn't have ink on it will be white. (And this would also be how you would get a white part of the decal.) Maybe not such a big deal if you're putting a decal on a white coffee mug, but if you want like bright yellow text on a black coffee mug you'll need to make the non-text part black and probably get real familiar with an Exacto knife.
The only other thing I might suggest is to buy more sheets than you think you'll need for whatever this project is. There's a good chance you'll wind up with unused blank sections of decal paper, and even if your printer can deal with partial sheets of paper, it might be more trouble than it's worth to align your decals properly to do that, easier to just start a fresh sheet.
posted by soundguy99 at 9:55 AM on March 1, 2022 [2 favorites]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by tmdonahue at 5:37 AM on March 1, 2022