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Read Thread: SUCCESS! Transfers using Canon PIXMA inkjet printer!

SUCCESS! Transfers using Canon PIXMA inkjet printer!
Board: Stamp Carving and Mounting
Mar 23, 2016 1:07pm
Thread (disabled) Board
Man, I had about given up! Nothing worked! But I finally tried just switching from printing in black to blue, and lo and behold it transferred perfectly! You would think that printing using the black dye ink would work just as well, but my attempts to do so failed. Perhaps I was unsuccessful in preventing the printer from using the pigment ink, I dunno. But using blue works, so the following are the step-by-step instructions for using a Canon PIXMA inkjet to put an image on the rubber for carving:

HOW TO TRANSFER AN IMAGE TO RUBBER USING AN INKJET PRINTER

Step 1: If you don't have Irfanview, get it:

http://www.irfanview.com/

It's free, there's no reason not to.

Step 2: Load a sheet of something that ink won't soak into into your inkjet printer. Items known to work include:

* Parchment -- available at grocery stores. Cut out a piece and tape down to regular paper; the parchment alone tends to jam in a printer.
* Overhead projector sheet -- the type intended for laserjets seem to work best here.
* Sheet of stick-on labels with all the stick-on labels removed.
* Sheet of clear cellophane cut from a report cover -- you might need to buff the surface a little with ultrafine sandpaper, 1200 grit or so.
* Mylar sheet intended for drafting.

Step 3: Bring up your image in Irfanview, click on Image, then Decrease Color Depth. Click on 2 colors. This will make your image black and white -- not grayscale, but actually black and white.

Step 4: Click on Image, then Palette, then Edit Palette. You should see a large window with two boxes in it: One black and one white. Double-click on the black one. It'll bring up a selection of colors to choose from. Click on the blue, which is near the center of the group of colors. Click OK. Your image is now blue and white.

Step 5: Click on Image, then Color Corrections... You'll be looking at several sliders. The one at the top left is Brightness; move that slider to the right until the little box next to it reads around 140. Hit OK. Your image is now light blue and white.

Step 6: Click on File, then Print. Select the size you'd like the image and how far down and right you'd like it from the upper left corner of your printed sheet. Hit Print.

Step 7: Lay the rubber face up on something soft, like a layer of foam. As soon as the page comes out of the printer, lay it face down on the rubber and press it with a cold iron or something else suitably flat. Press for perhaps ten seconds.

If you used mylar, you can clean the ink off with household cleaner and reuse it indefinitely; you only need one sheet for a lifetime. The other items may last more than once, but you'll probably need to replace them periodically.

The 140 works well with images that consist entirely of narrow lines. If your image has solid colored areas, you might need to go a bit higher than 140 to prevent making an unholy mess.
Re: SUCCESS! Transfers using Canon PIXMA inkjet printer!
Board: Stamp Carving and Mounting
Reply to: #922863 by Wry Me
Mar 24, 2016 12:07am
Thread (disabled) Board
I personally like the crispness I get from solvent transfers. They far exceed any results I've gotten w/ ink.

My experience is exactly the opposite. I did acetone transfers for a coupla years, but once I found parchment and then mylar transfers, I knew I'd never go back.