Single light colors

[grasmere]

Hi All
Is it possible to print a light color on black paper?
Would it be possible to maybe water down light Cyan?
If you can water down a color what would happen if you replaced all the ink cartridges with the same color?
As you will be able to tell from these questions I am a novice to printing and I apologize for what maybe
daft questions.

Thank you John

 

[The Hat]

grasmere Is it possible to print a light color on black paper?

The answer is no, because most printer inks are completely transparent and your paper is not..

 

[msmart]

printer inks are completely transparent

Huh????

The ink colors obviously won't look the same when printed on black paper as they do on white, but the lighter colors should still be visible on the black paper. Wouldn't they?

@grasmere, a little more information on what you're tying to accomplish would be helpful. What printer do you have? If the cartridges have a chip, the printer won't like cartridges being placed in the wrong position.

 

[Grandad35]

Printing is a "subtractive" process (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subtractive_color). You typically start with white paper and then use ink to absorb the colors that you don't want to see. Black paper reflects no light, so there is no light to subtract from.

You would have to lay down a very heavy layer of an ink containing TiO2 (http://www.nl-ind.com/khome.nsf/383...166081EB14EAFA428525690E004E6662?OpenDocument) to make a white base coat and then print on that.

 

[qwertydude]

"Watering down" colors will only lighten the color that uses that particular cartridge so for example a cyan print would become lighter as you water the ink down, replacing all of them with the same color would give you a really weird monochrome print. The big problem is that ink chemistry is a delicate balance. Just adding water affects the surface tension and viscosity of the ink which could prevent ink flow to the print head, I use Kodak Photo Flo to reduce surface tension but you may find that too much will eventually cause the foam in the cartridge to swell and again prevent ink flow. It's a careful balancing act, especially with canon printers. My new Epson with a cis is far less picky with ink formulation. But epson is a whole other can of worms with their chipped cartridges.

 

[grasmere]

printer inks are completely transparent

Huh????

The ink colors obviously won't look the same when printed on black paper as they do on white, but the lighter colors should still be visible on the black paper. Wouldn't they?

@grasmere, a little more information on what you're tying to accomplish would be helpful. What printer do you have? If the cartridges have a chip, the printer won't like cartridges being placed in the wrong position.

At present I make keyfobs and was looking at making house names and numbers.I was hoping to have done this
by printing onto black or a dark color media then facing the finished media with perspex.
But from the replies it looks like it is none starter. My printer is a Epson RX 560

Thank you for all the replies John (U.K.)

 

[grasmere]

printer inks are completely transparent

Huh????

The ink colors obviously won't look the same when printed on black paper as they do on white, but the lighter colors should still be visible on the black paper. Wouldn't they?

@grasmere, a little more information on what you're tying to accomplish would be helpful. What printer do you have? If the cartridges have a chip, the printer won't like cartridges being placed in the wrong position.

At present I make keyfobs and was looking at making house names and numbers.I was hoping to have done this
by printing onto black or a dark color media then facing the finished media with perspex.
But from the replies it looks like it is none starter. My printer is a Epson RX 560

Thank you for all the replies John (U.K.)

 

[qwertydude]

You could always just print on a light colored media but tell the printer to print an all dark background so that when you're done it's a dark background with light colors. Also then you can offer any color background you want or even a photo background.