Printing on Card

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Richard
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Printing on Card

Postby Richard » Thu Jan 28, 2016 7:44 pm

Does anyone know how to print onto card that is stiff enough to bend into greetings cards or notelets, then I can send as an alternative to buying (expensive) stuff in the shops that is a bit impersonal in any case?
If I draw (or copy for personal use) designs, I can then make them more meaningful and may even use street scenes, etcetera.
But how to print them since most printers, I imagine, would struggle to cope with a thick card.

Colour is not important to me at this stage.

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Geoff
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Re: Printing on Card

Postby Geoff » Fri Jan 29, 2016 11:33 am

This will very much depend whether your printer is geared up to print on card. It will need a fairly straight paper path for a start, probably a thickness adjustment too, so that the print head doesn't drag on the thicker media.

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Richard
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Re: Printing on Card

Postby Richard » Fri Jan 29, 2016 5:07 pm

Thanks Geoff,

Straight-through, flat-path printers are not easy to find (or cheap) but I think the 'HP Deskjet 1510' around £30 may just be ok.

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Re: Printing on Card

Postby Geoff » Fri Jan 29, 2016 6:13 pm

Look up the cost of inks before you buy any printer. Those HP 301 cartridges are outrageous money. The cheapest I can see on ebay is £8 each, and that's for non OEM. God knows how much genuine HP replacements would cost.

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Richard
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Re: Printing on Card

Postby Richard » Sat Jan 30, 2016 11:59 am

Most 'Brother' printers look to have a straight-path feed option so I will try to contact them, I agree consumables shouldn't be too expensive.
I assume the rollers must be able to cope with card thickness relating to 200-300gsm as they are normally set to deal with 80-100 gsm typical office A4 sheet paper specs, and would jam if a greater thickness were involved.
Let alone the convoluted paper path that would foul the mechanism on the typical 'U' or 'J' shaped paper paths of desk-top models.

I only need mono printing but think 'photo printers' would be able to cope with thicker sheets as photo paper is much thicker anyway.

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Re: Printing on Card

Postby Geoff » Sat Jan 30, 2016 12:04 pm

My Canon printer has a flip out bit at the back specifically for thicker stock (including photo paper). This straightens the feed path somewhat compared to using the general sheet feeder tray situated under the printer.

Any printer should be able to handle up to 150gsm without a problem, although you are going to wear out components quicker if it's not specifically designed to take the thicker stock.

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Richard
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Re: Printing on Card

Postby Richard » Sat Jan 30, 2016 12:51 pm

Thanks Geoff,

I will keep looking for the best option.

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Richard
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Re: Printing on Card

Postby Richard » Wed Mar 23, 2016 12:57 pm

I have been printing on card for a while now.
At first the ink kept rubbing off until I found that you have to use the software that pops up and use the screen menu to set the printer up for 'cardstock'.
I had not noticed this before but you can select for whatever medium you are printing on.
Then the rollers are heated up for longer and the print sinks in better. although when stone-cold there is still a little that rubs away.

There are countless images online that can be printed in monochrome alone:

1. Engravings

2. Line drawings

3. Woodcut prints

4. Lino cut prints

5. Old book illustrations (children's ?)

I try to avoid images with too much black in them as it wastes ink and can rub off slightly, via (my) laser printing anyway.

Then I select stuff like Art Nouveau (alphons Mucha), Birds (Audubon. Lear) etcetera
And if that is not enough you can make very simple hand-drawn line sketches and print them out for greetings cards, plus or minus add simple themed items from the internet/images.
I download appropriate greetings and print on the inside right of the folded card.

'Cheap as Chips' and much more personal than grabbing generic stuff from the shops.


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