Printing onto transfer paper

[RailwayRibaldry]

Can somebody please advise an elderly, not-up-to-date chap about printing transfers on an inkjet printer? If I use white do I have to trim precisely to the image (not practical) or if I use clear what happens if part of the logo I want is white, therefore becoming clear? Told you I was not up to date. Thanks if you can help.

[cctransuk]

46 minutes ago, RailwayRibaldry said:

Can somebody please advise an elderly, not-up-to-date chap about printing transfers on an inkjet printer? If I use white do I have to trim precisely to the image (not practical) or if I use clear what happens if part of the logo I want is white, therefore becoming clear? Told you I was not up to date. Thanks if you can help.

 

Unfortunately, unless you have a printer that prints white, you will have to print onto white paper.

 

The only way to avoid precise trimming is to print a surround to match the body colour.

 

CJI.

[RailwayRibaldry]

Thank you

[Michael Hodgson]

I've never printed my own transfers either (and I'm elderly too!), so I can't advise.

But can't you print the image without the white onto clear transparent film, after first painting the background area white ?

Does it have to be inkjet, or will laserlet work too?

[Dave John]

 I had a go recently with some wagon liveries. I found that choosing the base wagon colour, painting a sample and then scanning that into the graphics software to give a background colour for the white transfer paper gave passable results. 

 

[Merfyn Jones]

One I did recently with white fleet names and numbers.  The printing is done as close as possible to B R Green but the most important thing that a lot of people don't do is to paint the edge of the transfers in the green body colour. If not you have a white rectangle round the image.

[PhilH]

I’ve done a fair bit of printing decals (sorry transfers) on an inkjet printer for military models with a reasonable success rate…but definitely not 100%. A couple of observations, not all papers are born equal. Some, mainly the cheaper ones in my experience, are quite thick so impossible to hide the fact that it is a transfer. After a few disappointments I settled on Experts Choice brand, expensive but IMHO worth the money (disclaimer, no connection just satisfied with this brand). They are available in transparent and white.

 

You probably already know this but you must seal your transfers after printing (if using water slide paper and an inkjet printer) otherwise the ink will run when the transfer is wetted for use. I use Microscale Liquid Decal Film for this (again no connection), it works for me.

 

I’ve also found that in most cases if the colour isn’t strong enough after one pass through your printer you can usually run it through again to improve it. As long as your paper guides are quite tight to the paper it will, in my experience, usually be in register to the first run through.

 

Good luck!

Edited December 30, 2022 by PhilH

[PhilH]

7 hours ago, Michael Hodgson said:

 

Does it have to be inkjet, or will laserlet work too?

Yes. The advantage of using a laser printer to print decals (make sure you get decal paper for them, not for inkjets) is that you don’t have to waterproof the transfers after printing as they won’t run when wetted.

[Barclay]

Printing it a second time is a great idea as I have found colours not coming out strong enough.

[cctransuk]

5 hours ago, Barclay said:

Printing it a second time is a great idea as I have found colours not coming out strong enough.

 

Colours will never appear opaque unless there is a white substrate of some sort.

 

CJI.