Printing on black or dark envelopes with white ink using an inkjet printer

[Laith]

Hi
1- Are there inkjet printers that print with OEM white ink suitable for printing on black or dark envelopes?
2- Are there inkjet printers that can be fitted with non OEM white ink suitable for printing on black or dark envelopes?
Thanks

 

[The Hat]

1- Are there inkjet printers that print with OEM white ink suitable for printing on black or dark envelopes?

No, its that simple..

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

White inks are solvent based, and you need a printer for such inks which are typically large format printers. And you need special software - RIP - which can handle a different color in the black ink channel. So there is no somewhat easy solution to print white on dark envelopes with a desktop printer.

 

[Artur5]

Maybe printing in yellow would be an acceptable alternative ? I guess that printers with pigmented inks are better for printing over a dark background because lighter dye inks are quite transparent.

 

[The Hat]

Maybe printing in yellow would be an acceptable alternative ?

No that wouldn’t work either, the black background would smother the yellow ink..

 

[pharmacist]

Why not change the text into bitmap and inverse the colour so the white background becomes black and the letters to be printed into white. Print this bitmap on a piece of paper so the whole area is black and the letters are just the white colour of the paper. Cut out this piece of black printed paper and glue it on the envelope.

 

[Artur5]

Covering almost all the page in black probably would be too much ink for plain paper. I've printed in the past booklet covers featuring photos with a massive amount of dark backgrounds and the results were a bit messy. Nowadays I only use for that purpose paper of 120-150gram and it's better than ordinary 80gram paper, but still far from good ( curled paper, black ink permeating somehow to the other side, etc. ). Apart from that, if the OP. needs to print a considerable number of envelopes, the cost of ink wouldn't be negligible, specially if it's OEM.

 

[Artur5]

No that wouldn’t work either, the black background would smother the yellow ink..

That depends on the opacity of the ink. In all likelihood, dye ink wouldn't work at all, but maybe pigment would give an acceptable result ?. I have no black paper at hand or I'd try with my Maxify.

 

[Laith]

Why not change the text into bitmap and inverse the colour so the white background becomes black and the letters to be printed into white. Print this bitmap on a piece of paper so the whole area is black and the letters are just the white colour of the paper. Cut out this piece of black printed paper and glue it on the envelope.

Thanks. Another way that is probably an alternative to this is to print in white toner on transparent adhesive labels.
However, I am looking for inkjet printers, because, if possible, I want print directly on envelopes, which in many cases is not possible with a toner printer.

Inkjet printers are suitable for a considerably wider selection of envelopes.
To print with toner, you might have to carefully select envelopes, as some of them might wrinkle, or might wear the printer out.

Sorry for having to edit. My previous post was wrong.

 

[The Hat]

However, I am looking for inkjet printers, because, if possible, I want print directly on envelopes,

An alternative answer would be to print a self-adhesive label in black with white lettering reversed out and stick the label onto the black envelope.. Quickest option..

To print with toner, you might have to carefully select envelopes, as some of them might wrinkle, or might wear the printer out.

P.S. envelopes won’t wear your laser printer out..