White on transparent decals

[Nuju Metru]

Hey, everyone.

I've got a big MOCs/minifigs project in the works, which requires a huge amount of custom-printed torsos. I've brasso'd down the torsos which will be getting decals, and have already started designing some torso prints. The areas which would be the color of the torso below, I left white or clear in my decal designs, knowing that when the decals were printed, anything white on the page would become transparent when the decal was peeled away, seeing as I intend to use waterslide decals.

But, as I was designing, I realized that because of this, torso designs where I needed the actual color of white laid over something else (such as a black torso) is seemingly impossible. But I'm not sure if there's a way around this - is there any way to get a printer to print white? Or some other way to circumnavigate this snag that I'm missing?

Thanks, everyone!

[Omicron]

Usually a white off white color works.

-Omi

[Nuju Metru]

Usually a white off white color works.

-Omi

But doesn't a printer, when given an off-white color to put on white paper, add only a small amount of light grey or some other color to turn the white color of the paper off-white? So if the printer is assigned to print an off-white color, but transparent stickers are fed in, won't that mean the same thing happens - a mostly-transparent grey that will then use whatever color the decal is applied to as its base color?

[Darkdragon]

A pigment printer (such as inkjet) can't print white. Before using the water-slide decals you should definitely make a test print because you might be disappointed with how they turn out once you put it on a torso. They will look great on a white torso but any other color not so much.

To print white you need a thermal printer, expensive and very prone to breaking down.

[mmcb]

But doesn't a printer, when given an off-white color to put on white paper, add only a small amount of light grey or some other color to turn the white color of the paper off-white? So if the printer is assigned to print an off-white color, but transparent stickers are fed in, won't that mean the same thing happens - a mostly-transparent grey that will then use whatever color the decal is applied to as its base color?

Nuju,

That is exactly what would happen. Any colour printing (on a transparent decal) going over a dark torso will change dramatically. Most colours are really only suited to White torsos so that you get the full effect. From there the colour normally just darkens, but they can change depending on the torso colour (imagine yellow printing on a green torso) until you get to the Dk Greys. Then only Black printing works on the Dark Grey torso's and then nothing works on Black (keeping in mind that this is for transparent decals only).

The solution to overcome this problem is to use a White decal instead, however you would then have to print the matching torso colour as well as your design. For us "normal" people, this is the only solution available. But for the lucky few that actually have the specialised printers (like Kaminoan), they can actually print a White undercoat first under the detailed areas so that they stand out when applied to any colour torso.

Hope that helps with what you're doing.

MMCB

EDIT: DarkDragon just got in before me If you want to save on decal paper, you could find normal paper that is the same (or similar) colour to the torso you want to use and do a test print on that instead. The result would work out the same.

MMCB

Edited September 18, 2011 by mmcb

[Nuju Metru]

Aha, that's what I thought... Thanks everybody for the verification. Well, if white is what works, anybody have recommendations for the best type of white paper to use?

[Bricky0]

Aha, that's what I thought... Thanks everybody for the verification. Well, if white is what works, anybody have recommendations for the best type of white paper to use?

Yeah, I have the same question.

[mmcb]

Aha, that's what I thought... Thanks everybody for the verification. Well, if white is what works, anybody have recommendations for the best type of white paper to use?

Yeah, I have the same question.

Micromark is probably the better known one (and is what Kaminoan uses and recommends). Another brand that pops up frequently is Papilio

MMCB