White ink printers

[Krenzathal]

Does anyone ever think that all printers will eventually be able to print white?

I know the Epson Stylus Pro WT7900 has some sort of white ink ability and I have seen another video for one that prints white which is designed for heat transfers, but both of these cost about £4000/$6000 which isn't great for us amateurs.

I'm unsure why some manufacturer doesn't bring a good economy white printing printer to the market. Aside from the t-shirt printing side of things I'm sure it would have it's uses in many graphics artists homes and be well worth the makers time in creating it. I myself am sure I would use it for more than just t-shirts.

When you think of the added hassle of transfer paper types a good reasonably priced printer like this would be a godsent.

White on black is tres sexy non? :p

What are everyone's thoughts?

[ApeShirt]

Yeah, I've seen those expensive printers that do that. I highly doubt all printers will ever print white as the general public has no need for it. I imagine more will be offered down the road but the vast majority will not get to that point. It'd just be nice for the ones that do to become more affordable.

[Krenzathal]

Thanks for the info.

Just out of curiosity is there a way to substitute white by printing lighter colours? Like a really light blue or yellow? or does the printer make light colours by printing the original colour but more transparently against a white background to give the impression of a lighter colour?

Thanks!

[Catspit Productions]

I’m going to move this to the digital transfer section as that is where this topic is focused.

In reference to your question about substituting white by any means; the answer unfortunately is no. The problem is the printer will simply print less of the low opacity inkjet ink. There’s still no white ink at all so the color has no opacity. And by printing a lower volume that would lessen the opacity even more so.

There are laser printers available to the consumer market that print white toner. That is probably the most likely place you will see white “ink” printers for the commercial market. The most likely reason being a white ink in an inkjet printer will clog due to its constituents that give it an opaque white color. It’s the same problem DTG printers have if you don’t use them every day.

So unless they can make an opaque white ink for inkjet printers that will easily print and never clog, we won’t see much of that. Just laser printers I think as I said.

[Adriatix]

Yes you can print white with almost any inkjet printer if you do have suitable clear ink and some kind of RIP to control that amount of ink. Just take a look at this image



First part is standard plastosol silk print
While lover part is transfer of White powder printed on HP Deskjet 5550 with color clear ink cartridge.
Investment ?
Lest than USD 100 for the whole setup