Colour in my white

Unless you have an ALPS printer, or something simliar, you cant print white.  guys over here dont seem to realise it.  If your going to print white you need a special printer, 99% of normal printers WONT do it.

You need to use white decal paper, print it with an outline, then cut on the outline.

How companies do it, is they get clear paper, print the decals as white, then print the color on the white on the deacl, atleast thats how bandai does it. 

But what if I use a slightly off-white? Like a very light gray? Would that work? Otherwise I am just going to touch it up. The only thing else I could do is get a plain white circle decal from somewhere and then use the black part as a decal over it (on clear paper).

Graham

The reddish lines are most likely residuals from the 4-color print process. It is not a resolution problem. Black is usually a mixture of all four colors, which is typically how the printer achieves a rich, dark black.

However, the red may be there because of the program you're using, and how the file is set up. Make certain that your white areas are absolutely white. Easy to do in Illustrator, but in Photoshop, make sure your white is defined numerically (c=0 m=0 y=0 k=0) in the color box, to avoid any color corruption in the white.

As Smegol mentioned, home printers do not print white, so you will have to backpaint the area on your model white before placing the decal. 

Specifying a color of off white or light gray will not work as a substitute for white, because those colors depend on the color of the white paper it is being printed on to achieve their light-ness.

 

I constructed the image in a photoshop-like program and transferred it to MS Word - that's where it was printed from. To be honest, I haven't tinkered with the settings yet since I wanted to hear from the experts first. The image looks perfectly white on the screen with absolutely NO signs of red but seems to print that way. I thought that maybe if I print at a higher rez I may reduce it (ie photography versus draft copy). The image is about the diameter of a pencil eraser so we're not talking a largeproblem. I just hate going over with white paint because it never looks right.

Graham

There are two types of decal paper

Clear  and white

Clear paper will have no edges around the side like those that come in kits, but ALL color except for black and white will come out transparent.

White paper will have to be cut down EXACTLY to the edges of the decal or there will be a white border

normal printers can NOT print white, as I said.  Anything other then pure white, will come out clear on transparent paper.

As I said, what companies do is print the decals as white on clear paper, then print the color over it. 

grayv wrote:

I constructed the image in a photoshop-like program and transferred it to MS Word - that's where it was printed from. To be honest, I haven't tinkered with the settings yet since I wanted to hear from the experts first. The image looks perfectly white on the screen with absolutely NO signs of red but seems to print that way. I thought that maybe if I print at a higher rez I may reduce it (ie photography versus draft copy). The image is about the diameter of a pencil eraser so we're not talking a largeproblem. I just hate going over with white paint because it never looks right. Graham

First, I'd try printing it directly from the "photoshop-like" program (before importing into MS Word). That will give you a baseline on the problem. If red shows, your next step is to print the file from another color printer. If no red, then it's (of course) the laser printer giving you trouble. But if there's red, then there's something encroaching on the white areas in the file. Next step would be to recreate the artwork in another draw/paint program and check your results.

Hope that helps!

 

 

When you print on clear, do you need to do it twice per sheet - once for the white (clear) and again for the black or does it all come out at once? Sorry for being so dim but I haven't tried this before. The reason I didn't print from the OpenCanvas program is that I'm still struggling with it and I couldn't figure out how to get so many small images on the same page (I only need to do this once if I crowd the page a bit). I knew how to do this with Word and, in fact, my online reference that I used also uses Word. Word should be OK - it's just my lack of expertise, I think. I'll have to check my decal paper to see what type it is (never opened it).

Graham

grayv wrote:

When you print on clear, do you need to do it twice per sheet - once for the white (clear) and again for the black or does it all come out at once? Sorry for being so dim but I haven't tried this before. The reason I didn't print from the OpenCanvas program is that I'm still struggling with it and I couldn't figure out how to get so many small images on the same page (I only need to do this once if I crowd the page a bit). I knew how to do this with Word and, in fact, my online reference that I used also uses Word. Word should be OK - it's just my lack of expertise, I think. I'll have to check my decal paper to see what type it is (never opened it). Graham

You do not need to run it twice. All colors will print at once, just as if you printed to regular paper. Of course, white only appears as white on a paper printout because the regular paper is white already. Just remember any white area in your decal design will in fact be clear in the final decal (assuming you are printing on clear decal paper). If these areas are small-ish, just dab or airbrush a little white paint where the decal will go on, then apply the decal over it (after the white paint is dry, of course).

I've never tried OpenCanvas, but typically in art type programs, simply select the area you want to duplicate with a marquee tool, then Copy, then Paste, then move the pasted selection with your cursor to the desired area in your document, then deselect (these are general guidelines only, your program may differ).

If the black background of your design is rectangular, I'd recommend printing on white decal paper (rather than clear), as a rectangle is easy to cut out at its edges with an X-acto knife. Circles aren't so easy, and in that case I'd use the clear decal paper and backpaint the surface on the model white prior to decal application.

 

 

Yeah it's a circle so I better make sure it is clear - I really like the idea of adding a sploosh of white as a base and then putting the black on top. That's probably the way to go. I'll buy some clear sheets and try it. Thanks for all your help. If my kids had only picked a more common Space Marine chapter, it would have saved a lot of heartache. But I guess it's a learning experience.