Paper Modelling and the Laser Printer. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
A while back my Brother Black and White Laser Printer died. I bought it when I had a Windows 98 Operating System (the printer had a printer port in addition to the USB port) so I probably got my monies worth out of it. The office store I went to was offering colour Laser printers at a discount if you traded in an old printer, either dead or alive, so I upgraded my corpse B and W laser printer to a colour laser printer.
Here are my experiences with a laser printer.
The Good
Amazing color reproduction and high resolution of detail without blurring or color shifts no matter what brand of paper is used. The colors are bright and reflective and look more alive that ink jet printing, (unless the ink jet print was done on ink jet photo paper).
This is because the laser printer pigments are bonded to the surface of the paper, unlike ink jet which soak into or are adsorbed by the paper surface. There appears to be a difference in the rate different ink jet dyes or pigments are adsorbed by some papers, which results in strange color shifts. Color changes due to the type or brand of paper is less of a problem with a laser printer.
Since the laser printer pigments are not adsorbed by the paper, fine details are not blurred, they remain very sharp.
Laser printer images are pigments rather than dyes, so they are not going to degrade as quickly with exposure to bright light, unlike some brands of ink jet dyes which degrade with prolonged light exposure (Some Epson and Canon ink jet pigments are light resistant).
The Bad. (and a work around))
The laser printer image is adhered to the surface of the paper, the pigments are contained in a thin thermoset plastic (sorry) layer which is heat bonded on to the surface of the paper. Unfortunately this means the image is fragile and can be easily scratched, rubbed off, or scraped off the paper surface by rough handling, or flake off when the paper is folded or twisted.
This is especially the case with thick paper which cannot be heated enough to get decent bonding of the plastic carrier to the paper surface.
This is a problem for the paper modeler when the underlying paper shows through at sharp folds, or the parts of the image wear off or flake off during the repeated manipulation of the paper when assembling the model.
I have found a work around to this problem.
I tried coating the laser printed images on 65 pound or heavier papers with acrylic floor wax, gesso or decoupage medium from an art supply store, and with a variety of clear spray varnishes. While the images thus treated where less fragile and stood up better to rough handling, I could not completely eliminate cracking or flaking of the images at folds.
I then printed images on 24 pound printer paper using the “improve toner fixing” setting on the laser printer. I sprayed the pages with clear coating (the petroleum based ones seemed to work better than water based acrylic coatings) and let them dry on a flat surface with their corners weighted to reduce curling. I glued the printed images to thicker paper . A couple of plates of glass and/or plastic cutting sheets, a rubber cake icing spreader, rolling pin, and a roll of wax paper and assorted weights or clamps are useful.
These images seem to be more resistant to handling, and at least so far show less cracking and flaking when the paper is folded or bent than images printed on heavier paper. Small amounts of water base glue can also be carefully wiped off the spray coated laser printed pages without leaving glue spots.
The Ugly.
Laser printed pages can be used for paper modelling, but extra time is needed to prepare them in order to make the images more resistant to mechanical damage.
The cost of a new set of colour laser cartridges is over one hundred dollars. A laser printer may also contain other expendable parts that will have to be replaced.
A while back my Brother Black and White Laser Printer died. I bought it when I had a Windows 98 Operating System (the printer had a printer port in addition to the USB port) so I probably got my monies worth out of it. The office store I went to was offering colour Laser printers at a discount if you traded in an old printer, either dead or alive, so I upgraded my corpse B and W laser printer to a colour laser printer.
Here are my experiences with a laser printer.
The Good
Amazing color reproduction and high resolution of detail without blurring or color shifts no matter what brand of paper is used. The colors are bright and reflective and look more alive that ink jet printing, (unless the ink jet print was done on ink jet photo paper).
This is because the laser printer pigments are bonded to the surface of the paper, unlike ink jet which soak into or are adsorbed by the paper surface. There appears to be a difference in the rate different ink jet dyes or pigments are adsorbed by some papers, which results in strange color shifts. Color changes due to the type or brand of paper is less of a problem with a laser printer.
Since the laser printer pigments are not adsorbed by the paper, fine details are not blurred, they remain very sharp.
Laser printer images are pigments rather than dyes, so they are not going to degrade as quickly with exposure to bright light, unlike some brands of ink jet dyes which degrade with prolonged light exposure (Some Epson and Canon ink jet pigments are light resistant).
The Bad. (and a work around))
The laser printer image is adhered to the surface of the paper, the pigments are contained in a thin thermoset plastic (sorry) layer which is heat bonded on to the surface of the paper. Unfortunately this means the image is fragile and can be easily scratched, rubbed off, or scraped off the paper surface by rough handling, or flake off when the paper is folded or twisted.
This is especially the case with thick paper which cannot be heated enough to get decent bonding of the plastic carrier to the paper surface.
This is a problem for the paper modeler when the underlying paper shows through at sharp folds, or the parts of the image wear off or flake off during the repeated manipulation of the paper when assembling the model.
I have found a work around to this problem.
I tried coating the laser printed images on 65 pound or heavier papers with acrylic floor wax, gesso or decoupage medium from an art supply store, and with a variety of clear spray varnishes. While the images thus treated where less fragile and stood up better to rough handling, I could not completely eliminate cracking or flaking of the images at folds.
I then printed images on 24 pound printer paper using the “improve toner fixing” setting on the laser printer. I sprayed the pages with clear coating (the petroleum based ones seemed to work better than water based acrylic coatings) and let them dry on a flat surface with their corners weighted to reduce curling. I glued the printed images to thicker paper . A couple of plates of glass and/or plastic cutting sheets, a rubber cake icing spreader, rolling pin, and a roll of wax paper and assorted weights or clamps are useful.
These images seem to be more resistant to handling, and at least so far show less cracking and flaking when the paper is folded or bent than images printed on heavier paper. Small amounts of water base glue can also be carefully wiped off the spray coated laser printed pages without leaving glue spots.
The Ugly.
Laser printed pages can be used for paper modelling, but extra time is needed to prepare them in order to make the images more resistant to mechanical damage.
The cost of a new set of colour laser cartridges is over one hundred dollars. A laser printer may also contain other expendable parts that will have to be replaced.
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire