printing transfers on a laser printer

[Sergeant_Crunch]

So I managed to pick up a color laser printer on clearance the other day and was wondering if there would be any issues using it to print on decal sheets. I don't want to damage the printer or waste money on transfer sheets if it doesn't work.

[Joe Kutz]

Laser printers are the preferred way to print them (well after an ALPS printer...). When you go looking for decal sheets, look for the ones which are sold as Laser Printer sheets as opposed to the Inkjet ones. I haven't tried the Inkjet ones in a laser printer, so I don't know if it will cause any problems...but using the Laser sheets in an Inkjet printer will result in colors that smudge really easily.

[Sergeant_Crunch]

Hmm....

 

*ponders the small business possibilities*

[Doug Sundseth]

I won't guarantee disaster if you use a transfer sheet intended for ink jets in a laser printer. But I sure wouldn't be first in line to try it. Laser printers use heat to fuse their toner to paper. If the "paper" used has a melting point (or thermoplastic threshold) below the temperature of the fuser, you'll end up with the sheet fused to the fuser unit and effectively destroy the printer.

 

But hey, if you try it, let us know how it went.

[morganm]

Fuser units are replaceable but on a discounted, consumer model, printer it's likely not cost effective to replace it :(

 

So as noted above, be sure you are using the right kind of transfer paper =^.^=

[Sergeant_Crunch]

I know how laser printers work, that's why I was concerned about gumming up the thing. Found some laser printer transfers, will probably order some after I move.

[Mr.Wizard]

You've got some good advice here already, but you might check out Lazertran transfer paper at Dick Blick art supply. I don't know if you have to spray it afterward or not; I don't think you do.

Dick Blick's site is www.dickblick.com. There is also a book there called the Complete Book of Image Transfer.

 

Also, Micro Mark sells printer decal sheets, but I would look at the Lazertran first.

[Rastl]

My inkjet prints way better detail than my laser printer. The inkjet goes to 2400 x 1200 but I think the laserjet stops at 600 x 600. I can't find the manual to confirm the laserjet one.

 

So that's a consideration - how fine do you want your resolution?

[ixminis]

Two types of laser paper: White background and clear. If you want a bright color, you will either need to under-paint the area the clear decal will cover or use white background decal paper.

 

That's why the Alps is so good (it can print white)

[Joe Kutz]

Two types of laser paper: White background and clear. If you want a bright color, you will either need to under-paint the area the clear decal will cover or use white background decal paper.

 

That's why the Alps is so good (it can print white)

 

If you are looking to get bright colors without under painting (and not dealing with white) - check to see if your printer has a setting for transparencies. That setting applies a much higher ink density which causes them to be more opaque when applied as a decal.

 

If your printer doesn't have the various settings to handle that, one technique that is used with ALPS printers (and normal printers) is to perform multiple passes. I normally will do a single pass at 1200 DPI for standard table top army decals. For display pieces as well as RPG miniatures, I will normally do 3 passes.

[PaintByNumbers]

I got some Lazertran to try using on these Hoplite shield patterns:

 

http://www.ritsumei.ac.jp/se/~luv20009/Gre...patterns_1.html

 

But I first need to figure out how to resize the rectangular image to create the correct diameter circles, and then how to use the Dropper Tool (???) in Photoshop to change the colors of the image and background within the circles.

[Doug Sundseth]

I got some Lazertran to try using on these Hoplite shield patterns:

 

http://www.ritsumei.ac.jp/se/~luv20009/Gre...patterns_1.html

 

But I first need to figure out how to resize the rectangular image to create the correct diameter circles, and then how to use the Dropper Tool (???) in Photoshop to change the colors of the image and background within the circles.

 

Some points and responses (sorry if this is more basic than necessary; from your post it sounds as though you don't have much experience):

 

1. Luke U-S's images are pretty low-resolution images; if you want to resize them larger, and want high-resolution output you'll need to do quite a bit of cleanup. You might want to consider using the regular Photoshop drawing tools to redraw the images, if that's the case, rather than trying to edit the existing images. You can use a new layer to trace over the existing image and delete the original layer before printing if you want to do that.

 

2. To resize an image, the easiest way is to use the "Image Size" selection. You can resize by changing the document size or pixel dimensions. Make sure that "Constrain Proportions" is selected. If you are increasing the size of the image and intend to edit the pictures to increase the smoothness of lines, make sure that "Resample Image" is selected.

 

3. The Paintbucket tool is the tool you want to use to fill areas with a single color. This depends on the area being completely surrounded by pixels of a different color, which can result in some annoying artifacts that will need to be cleaned up one by one, or bleeds into areas you didn't intend to fill with the new color. If the latter happens, undo the action and close the gaps around the area you are trying to fill.

 

4. This is probably unnecessary, but before you try printing on expensive transfer paper, make sure the output on regular paper is the correct size and that it looks decent.

 

HTH