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PT Studios · January 14th, 2007

Ok... This is might be a dumb question...but, why doesn't someone (i'm looking at you Epson) make a white print cartridge for the industry??????? I've heard about the Alps but, arn't thoses being discontiued? Wouldn't white ink make sense and solve a lot of problems?

badalou · January 14th, 2007

No because people don't write with white ink on whaite paper. You probably thinking in terms of transfer paper and yes that would be ideal. But the printers sold are not there for our industry they are there for the photo and word print industry. we represent a very small fraction.

Colorfast · January 14th, 2007

Lou is right as far as the type of desktop/photo printers we use in our world.

However in the wide format world of inkjet printing white has been developed by several manufacturers selling inkjet printers that use UV ink technology. These printers are typically 80" plus in media/substrate width and UV technology can be used in many applications. Also as you may know the DTG equipment manufacturers either offer white or are working on it.

In both worlds (wide format & DTG) white is still not where it should be. Some whites require multiple passes with the head to generate what we would consider a good density...especially on darker substrates.

PT Studios · January 14th, 2007

Hey badalou... I figured I'd get you involved in this thread...I've been thinking about this and I think that the imprintables industry is probably pretty big! And, equipment is usually specifically designed for specific industries.. like heat presses for example... how many companies make heat presses, and how many do they sell? Lots. Now, I'm not even suggesting someone make a printer that uses a white ink as their only product. However, a company, like Epson, already makes a 6 ink printer right? So, you use 4 of those ink cartridges for your CMYK then one for White and one for .... mmm maybe metalic or something. All they really need to do is add a white cartridge to their existing product line! Then, of course, market it to the imprintables industry... people would be lined up around the block!!!

badalou · January 14th, 2007

Jay I agree with you. I think that it is very far down the road though. Chip is right but those inks are for a different segment of people.

Quote:


	Hey badalou... I figured I'd get you involved in this thread...

Why? I don't get involved in all threads.. Am I getting that obvious. But you know some where in the dark creveous of my mind I did read about white ink on an epson printer.. Now I need to go find out where I heard that. Get back to you on that.

PT Studios · January 14th, 2007

Well, you are the M.H.M.... badalou. Love the new video by the way... I need to find someone in Canada that carries that stuff (paper).

Colorfast · January 14th, 2007

Regarding my comments on the wide format inkjet, Epson is a big supplier to that industry. They manufacturer a lot of the print heads so it is very possible they could develop a white for desktop/photo format printers. As we know they make their money off the ink products so if we (market) could get our vices heard they may deliver. FYI on the metallics...very hard if not impossible to deliver an ink product through a 4 picoliter head that has metallic flakes in it. Could go with an RGB ink cartridge as other manufacturers are.

Jasonda · January 14th, 2007

Jay, like the others said, there are already lots of people trying to develop white ink for the various markets (inkjet, DTG, etc). So far they have only had moderate success.

Any colored ink is transparent. When you print it on white paper, it colors the paper. What happens if you print on black paper? It colors the paper, but you can't see it because the paper is darker than the ink.

Because it is transparent, if you print yellow over blue, the yellow will combine with the blue to make green. If it were opaque, the yellow would cover the blue and just look yellow instead of green.

Also, regular ink soaks into the paper or the shirt rather than laying on the top. If an ink was opaque, it might not soak in as much, and so it could have problems sticking to the shirt.

This is why it is difficult to develop a white ink. A white ink can not be transparent, it has to be totally opaque, it has to hold onto the shirt, you have to be able to print other colors on top, and in many cases, it would have to work with equipment that up until now has been specifically made to work only with colored inks.. that's a pretty tall order.