White Toner for Laser Printers

Overseer

Western Thunderer
I have been looking for simple methods of producing white lettering on red oxide wagons for many years and the solution finally seems to be here - White toner for laser printers. Following a mention on the 2mmSA VAG group that a company in Germany was selling white toner I looked into it and have purchased a couple of cartridges from Ghost (Ghost White Toner Bundle) to see how it works. At the moment they only supply toner for two HP colour laser printers, one A4 and the other A3. My office bought one of the matching colour printers, a HP Laserjet 200 M251nw, just in time as this model seems to have just been superseded. The white toner cartridge replaces the black cartridge in the printer so if you want full colour you need to print white first then a second pass with the black cartridge in the printer. The intended purpose of the toner is to allow printing in white on coloured paper but it will print on laser waterside decal paper as well.

So far I have only tested the white toner on black 80 gsm paper which is not particularly smooth. The results are very positive and the white toner behaves in the same way that black toner does. I haven't tested printing on transfer/decal paper yet as I stored it safely in a box during the recent office move and haven't found the right box yet.

Ghost2.jpg
Ghost1.jpg
All the fuzzy bits and flare in the photos are thanks to the snappy camera and are not on the paper. The detail view is of 7mm scale BR wagon numbers printed from the same CAD file seen previously on WT when I printed in black on white decal paper, which was fine for stock with black patches around the lettering but no use for white lettering on red oxide.

David at Ghost is very helpful and easy to deal with, I am apparently their first customer outside Europe. The toner is not cheap but it is not that much more expensive than black toner and it does what it says it will do. I will report on the decal trials, but it will probably be a few days. I have also ordered a couple of different types of waterslide decal paper from the US to see whether there are differences to the locally available papers.

I have no connection with Ghost apart from as a customer. One of the major printer manufacturers also now has colour laser printers available with white toner but they are considerably more expensive.
 

mickoo

Western Thunderer
I see their starter package including printer is only 299 Euros, that's a reasonably priced laser printer set up, I think?

When you change the black cartridge for white, do you have to run some sacrificial sheets through to clean the black out before the white fully works?

Mick D
 

Overseer

Western Thunderer
I don't think it is necessary to run extra sheets of paper through after changing toner cartridges due to the design of the printer with all 4 cartridges in a pull out tray, but I haven't tried it yet. It would only be plain paper if it were needed.

I paid just under A$230 for the networked version of the printer, so about £115. It may be more in the UK, pricing of computer peripherals seem to vary according to the competition in the market rather than the actual cost of making the product. A full set of replacement toner cartridges costs more than the printer to buy.
 

oldravendale

Western Thunderer
In retrospect it's rather strange that no printer manufacturer has thought to make straightforward provision for white toner in their machines. The number of people using these for purposes other than straightforward office and photo type printing must be significant, and even at a premium I'd have thought that there would be a market. In fact there are probably a lot of people who would welcome the chance to be able to print on coloured paper.

I know that there has been a printer available in the past - can't remember the name at the mo - but it was an expensive machine and not for the likes of me!

Brian
 

richard_t

Western Thunderer
It was ALPS that had printers capable of printing white (along with other colours such as gold and silver). They stopped selling those printers outside Japan in 2007, according to the Wikipedia article. The magic, I believe was in the printer driver, so that it wouldn't ignore white in an image, and would print it along with the other colours/black.
 

TheSnapper

Western Thunderer
Can I suggest a less expensive alternative using your common-or-garden domestic inkjet printer?

Create or scan the image to be printed & "invert" it in some Image Editing Software.
I use Photoshop, so go to "Image/Adjustments/Invert". I'm sure other software will have a similar option.

Here is an example:

WhiteInk.jpg

(Extract from info supplied with Cambridge Custom Transfers © Sheet BL97)

This can be printed on white paper or white transfer film.


Tim
 

adrian

Flying Squad
Can I suggest a less expensive alternative using your common-or-garden domestic inkjet printer?
I've used that method on a couple of wagons with good results. This is fine for lettering on black panels however I think Overseer's challenge was white lettering over red oxide. Printing white letters on a transparent transfer sheet will allow the base livery colour through.
 

oldravendale

Western Thunderer
Can I suggest a less expensive alternative using your common-or-garden domestic inkjet printer?

Create or scan the image to be printed & "invert" it in some Image Editing Software.
I use Photoshop, so go to "Image/Adjustments/Invert". I'm sure other software will have a similar option.

Here is an example:

View attachment 53563

(Extract from info supplied with Cambridge Custom Transfers © Sheet BL97)

This can be printed on white paper or white transfer film.


Tim
Ah yes, Tim, but to come up with that solution requires a rather large dollop of lateral thinking with which I'm not terribly well endowed.

I will, however, give it a go on my Epson ink jet printer.

And Richard - yes it was the ALPS printer I was trying to dredge up from the black hole of my memory.

Brian
 

Overseer

Western Thunderer
Success at first attempt printing on waterside decal paper. I found a few old sheets of Microscale decal paper so put one through the printer. The result seems to look and behave just like a normal screen printed decal. Sorry about the dodgy fluoro lit photos
ghost trial1.jpg
ghost trial2.jpg
I applied a number to the first thing that came to hand with some paint on it, a Parkside 16T mineral backdated to one of the earlier LMS 16T wagons in the process of being painted/weathered - the bauxite is meant to be the undercoat for BR grey. Anyway it is not the right number for the wagon. Arthur Potts is nothing to two with the wagon either, it is a trial of the name for the Altrincham Gas Co Peckett, and is 1mm high. No decal setting solution has been used yet or varnish. The decals will be scraped off before repainting.

I am happy with the result and it is as easy as printing a piece of paper.
 

iak63

Western Thunderer
Wibbling furiously now...
Why in blazes does it take a German company to come up with something like this?
A veritable wee game changer for definite...
 

mickoo

Western Thunderer
Works for me, I've a fair few projects in O and G scale that require white decals, probably enough to drop for a full printer package set up, not right now of course but in the future it looks a viable acquisition.

Actually, thinking laterally, and taking on board you don;t need to run sheets through to cleanse colours...it might be possible to just acquire the white toner cartridge and drop it in our works printer, providing the cartridges are compatible.

Mick D
 
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