Here are some examples of a decorative design that I created from sample of old fabric.
They are 300 ppi and they print on my Canon Pixma home printer (via Paint Shop Pro 8) at exactly 1.5 inches (approx 3.75 cm) square each.
The little thumbnails above have been compressed by WordPress and will not print very well and, especially if you click on a thumbnail to see the full size version, they may well look much larger than 1.5 inches on-screen.
If you would like to print a sheet of paper, so that the pattern is the “right” size at 300 ppi, the pdfs are here –
Fruit_Baskets_OHM_130308_raspberry
Fruit_Baskets_OHM_130308_pale_pink
(The A4 sheets are enormously ink thirsty, so please do not waste your ink – print a sample to get an idea of the colour first.)
The photo below shows why I used 300 ppi samples and not 72 ppi samples.
I know I always say this but – whether or not the papers print well and are useful to you (or not) will depend on the paper, ink and printing method used.
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I had a chance to talk to someone who works as a commercial printer earlier this week and I asked him if there was any way to recreate, at home, the non-smudge result found in colour printed books.
SPOILER – Don’t get excited – according to him there isn’t…
After he had stopped laughing – he is a nice man, really he is – he suggested that I have a look at Shackell Edwards website, and then he calmed down and explained a bit…
The universal problem is, it seems, not only getting the ink onto the paper, and in the right place, but making it stay there.
The print finishes that we see in magazines, books, wrapping paper, etc are created by a combination of the paper, the ink and the finishing coating.
It is at this point that I am probably about to become temendously tedious to a great many readers so, dear readers, if you find the following dead boring please skip to the bottom of this post and vote for something more interesting.
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I was asked, a couple of posts back, if I recommended using spray-on fixative to protect the surface of an ink-jet print.
I have heard of this being done and, as it seems to be a widely recommended method, it must work for some people.
I have tried fixative sprays in the past but, as the ones available to me are for fixing looses surfaces like charcoal or pastel to paper, they were not particularly effective on ink-jet ink.
This does not mean that fixative sprays do not work on ink-jet prints, only that I have not yet found one that does.
Anyway, after my conversation with the printer, and imbued (yet again) with the (mad) idea that there must be a way to “fix” ink jet ink to ordinary paper, I tried a little experiment this week.
I printed two samples onto 90 gsm photocopy paper and very carefully applied glaze of –
- Ronseal varnish (this would not smudge on coated paper inkjet paper)
and
- white, water based, washable,”craft” glue for children (this would sit on top of coated inkjet paper and dry unevenly – it is good for crackle glaze and not much else).
With the following results –
Admittedly I had chosen to work with a raspberry pink colour that I know, from past experience, runs and smudges far more easily than most other colours.
So nothing daunted I printed another sample and got out my favourite white, water based glue –
– and tried with that –
I wasn’t nice and careful, I simply wiped the thick glue over the print with my finger. This darkened the ink and smudged it a little bit.
Then I got creative with water proofing for clothing (if you lived in the middle of England, you would probably have a bottle of this under your kitchen sink too !)
The Nikwax effect was… interesting
although I have to say my favourite part was the crumbling, aged effect on the back of the paper –
After the Evo-stick and the Nikwax had dried overnight, I tried the water test…
and came to the conclusion that –
I still hadn’t found the solution…
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A very big thank you to everyone who voted and left comments. I appreciate your help very much indeed.
Here are the results of the poll – equal first are the Circus Procession book and the papier mache Easter egg.
I will not, unfortunately, have time to make two slideshows next week, so I think it will have to be the Circus Procession next week and (if everything goes to plan) the papier mache egg for the Easter weekend.
Please bear in mind that, although I can run through how I make the papier mache eggs, I cannot do a digital download for the mold !
In case you are wondering, I did vote.
To test that the poll was working properly, I voted for the basket for an Easter egg!
Hello and hello,
Your post is wonderful. Thank you as always.
I use hairspray on my inkjet printed paper after I print. Get the spray can type as it has less water in it. The spritz type bottles have some water in them usually
Do not over saturate the paper as a fine once over spray works great.
If you don’t like the smell of the hairspray you bought, instead you can use :
-Krylon Workable fixative or = this sprays on
-Mod Podge Matte finish = this brushes on and looks like glue when you apply it and dries clear.
Most of my Artist friends use hairspray on their art work as it is so much less expensive than other fixatives.
Happy printing,
Petrina
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Hello !
I wondered if anyone would mention hairspray.
I have experimented with it in the past, but all the sorts I tried always remained slightly sticky and attracted dust. This could well be a case of “which brand works best” for you or it could be that things have improved in the hairdressing world and I have not kept up-to-date, so I must see if I can borrow some 🙂
Krlyon looks interesting.
So does Modge Podge Matte
I must add them to my shopping list for a try out.
Thank you for mentioning them !
Elizabeth
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Hello, Elisabeth! To my great regret I can not find any of my comments on your blog, and with even more great regret, I never got your fan to my address. Why is that?
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Hello Blanche,
I do not know, but I will look into it and see if I can find your comments – I certainly approved them !
I will also ask the post office if they can trace your fan for us.
Elizabeth
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Hello Elizabeth,
I love it as you post all my comments and I get all snail mail from you.
Blanche must have some sort of glitch.
I was sure I saw a thank you from her to you, but then I may have a brain freeze.
I will understand if you do not allow this post through to your blog.
Happy thoughts,
Petrina
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Well, Blanche’s comments certainly do seem to have disappeared – I remember them particularly beacuse she said that “her friend did not deserve to be called spam” which made me laugh…
To have both comments and a fan disappear is very unfortunate – !
Poor Blanch did not deserve this, anymore than her friend, whose comments went straight into my spam box
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Hi after reading your last blog about prints I don’t know exactly what you are looking for. A sealer? but then you said the water test? If just a sealer this might help. As a French Polisher I use clear sanding sealer to seal prints from my inkjet it’s shellack based I wipe it over my prints with a small wad of kitchen roll.this dries to a semi shine finish. It also gives your paper a bit more body for sticking (for decoupage ect.) As for the water test I have no idea what you need that for perhaps you will enlighten me?
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First of all I must say what a very lovely colour you have chosen for the room box on your blog!
I am looking for something that is readily available and which will not cause, discolouration or “bleeding” of ink – when applied to an ink-jet print.
Shellac based sealers are a very good idea. However, in my experience, they do turn some papers slightly transparent. They are however very worthwhile experimenting with – thank you for mentioning them 🙂
The water test… well have you ever splashed water over an (unsealed) ink-jet print?
The water test involves coating a print with sealer of some kind and then applying water to the sealed side – the easiest way to do this is to turn it into a folded paper funnel and drop some water into it.
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Thank you, Elizabeth! If the range you have sent and was lost is another great sorrow. Hopefully it is not so and that will come soon.
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You are very welcome Blanche,
I am going to the Post Office this morning and will take the postage receipt with me, so that I can ask about the package.
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Hello Gary,
You comment is hidden in the poll and will be deleted when I delete the poll next week, so I am going to copy it here – please let me know if you would like me to delete it.
“Elizabeth I applaud your stick-with-itness! When I made my toy theatres before Christmas, I printed them out in B&W and applied gouaches and regular water colours.. I had a can of Krylon matte finish spray and sprayed the finished items liberally. I think it enhanced the colours and let me tell you what was underneath was definitely protected. I tried to go back and do some touch-ups but was not able to. I would think most spray finishes would do the same? Krylon says moisture resistant on the can and it surely is. It is wonderful that you take the time to find the best solution to problems. I tried quite a few techniques to stain glass a while ago and went through the same experimenting process. I did this to use on miniature glass. One technique which went viral on Pinterest was ModPodge and food colouring. I have suspicions that the food colouring we can buy now is of inferior quality and will in a short time fade. I concluded that oven-baked Pebeo was the best for me,,,,but the difficult part was to find colours I was happy with. I think the paste food colouring that is used in baking/icings would be of a better quality.I think I am getting the correlation between the printer,. the ink and the resolution,,,thanks! GaryinS”
Thank you for this Gary, I haven’t used Krylon and it sounds to me as though I would think of it as a varnish, rather than a fixative. I like your idea of printing the theatres out in black and white and then colouring them very much indeed. The Krylon would have been applied over a variety of pigment types and if they all survived (and were thoughly protected too !) that is very encouraging.
I did use (many years ago as a child !) food colouring in emulsion paint to get pretty, pale colours, but the colour faded after about a month – though the effect was extremely pretty while it lasted !
I don’t know what is in modern food colourings, or if they vary from place to place, but anything too robust might not be very good for the digestion…
ModPodge seems to get used for everything ! I really must get some to try out !
Thank you again, Elizabeth
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Hi Elizabeth…I’m late reading this post because I haven’t had access to my computer. How mean you are, making us choose between all those tantalizing projects…how can we pick just one? As much as I loved the papier mache eggs, I voted for the photograph album because it will fit in more settings.
As for sealing ink-jet prints, I THOUGHT I was using spray matte acrylic varnish…but I see that my current can is labeled Krylon Acrylic Crystal Clear Satin…Protective, Non-Yellowing Clear Finish. However, I have to admit that I haven’t given my sprayed copies a real water test. I was “taught” to spray-fix ink jet prints used for wallpaper so that the ink isn’t smeared by whatever paste is used for the wallpaper. I’ve also had problems decoupaging unsealed ink-jet prints, so I was surprised that others use Modge Podge to seal them in the first place. However, another miniaturist who works with printed paper a lot told me my problem was that I just tried to use my ink-jet prints too soon. She advised me to let them sit and “really dry” for a couple of days before using them as wallpaper or for any other project, and that does help quite a bit.
My bottom line, when I really need to make sure a print doesn’t run or smear, is to just have it professionally printed on a laser printer/copier. I’ve never had a laser print smear or run. – Sharon
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Hi Sharon,
I couldn’t make up my mind what to do next, so I very meanly asked other people to make the choice for me!
Thank you for helping me out and voting.
Drying time certainly does make a difference in my experience, but there are so many other variables that I think that I am going to have to say very clearly, every time – “I did this on an ink-jet printer because I think this is what most of you will be using. However I can’t tell you how to finish ink-jet prints, so that the colours do not run, fade, etc., etc., etc.”
Laser photocopying is certainly a way round this and, as the ink (powder) is bound to the surface of the paper by heat rather than being spayed on in liquid form, it does give a more stable finish.
Laser printing is also very exact and will show up every little blemish (in my experience). For example – the pink stains on the last page of the McLoughlin House come out very clearly.
There are so many choices [I like choices – because I never know what I am going to discover next :-)]
So, I think that I am going to have to stop trying to be helpful and say – “This is what happened when I did this. You do what works for you!”
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Sharon makes a wonderful point about letting the ink set when it comes off the printer.
I had forgotten one of my favorite methods:
After printing, use a hand iron to set the ink, not too hot as it will yellow cardstock paper.
In the 1920’s and 30’s in Boca Raton, Florida, they would iron the Newspaper before delivering it to the wealthy…so the ink would not come off on their fine clothing.
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Yes, Sharon’s point is a very good one –
However, speaking from personal experience, different inks dry at different rates and to degrees of colour fastness. I think possibly the Epson range is “best” for colour fastness, but I have not tried all the variations possible.
Using a hand iron – not too hot – sounds like a wonderful idea!
One of the nice things about it is that it is so simple – not to mentionthe fact that there always seems to be ironing to be done and so it should be something easy to try out and I am almost looking forward to my next ironing day, this weekend !!!
Sadly, the ink used in newspapers, in the UK at least, was used on printing presses and isn’t suitable (as far as I know) for ink-jet printing.
Though I do like the idea of a freshly ironed newspaper… 🙂
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I spray with krylon and then paint over a thin layer of matte or satin Jo Sonja varnish. It won’t take a soaking but is resistant to humidity and occasional drops of water.
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Thank you very much for leaving a comment.
I must see if I can get some Krylon – my shopping list gets longer every minute !
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