OT: printing on to a card

What are the prospects of overprinting a greetings card using an HP LaserJet printer (P1102w) without wrecking the printer? This would be an occasional exercise only.

Reply to
Scott
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Well it says "variety of media types including card stock," but it depends on the thickness and whether or not the paper has to bend and how much. Any fold or embossing on the card could be a problem, most printers that can take card usually have a feeder whereby the card doesnt have to flex as much as paper does normally from the tray.

Reply to
whisky-dave

There should be a spec on the max weight of card that the printer can accept usually expressed as grams per sq m "standard" office paper is 80 GSM. Avoid glitter lol test print first as some paper/card will allow the ink to wick along the fibres and give a smudged appearance.

Reply to
Bob Minchin

My experiments with this sort of thing - printing business cards - show that the old HP printer I was using would take up to around 250 gsm. That's rather thin for a birthday card. Anything thicker just wouldn't feed. The spec said something like 180 gsm, btw.

Reply to
GB

Some printers allow a flat paper path for thicker card than the usual 140/160gsm. If yours doesn't you're probably out of luck. Scan & reprint might be an option.

NT

Reply to
tabbypurr

The bend around the drum is the killer and indeed might not knacker it but probably would not work either! You need an ink jet for this kind of thing. Brian

Reply to
Brian Gaff

Yes but lasers always need the paper to go around the drum as they are basically xerox machines with the image written by laser. Brian

Reply to
Brian Gaff

Its not ink in a laser, its toner, tiny fragments of plastic that stick to statically charged parts and are fixed on by a heated roller. Brian

Reply to
Brian Gaff

If the printer has (the option of using) a straight through paper path, then they can normally do at least 200gsm. I have found they will often do more, but may have difficulty fusing the toner on the page if its too thick (leading to print you can brush off).

Reply to
John Rumm

Years ago I had a Brother that did very thick stuff, soething like 400gsm. It had no difficulty with it.

NT

Reply to
tabbypurr

Could you assist passage manually for a one-off task?

Reply to
Scott

So did I. Darwin's Law got him in the end.

Bill

Reply to
Bill Wright

Yes, we had that.

That's why I resurrected an unused Canon Bubblejet BJ10EX.

It printed the addresses on our wedding invitations in 2002, invitations to our 1st son's baptism in 2003 (he was born on our 1st anniversary!), invitations for our 2nd son's baptism in 2005 and again for our 3rd in 2009.

I've not needed it since then, but I can still buy cartidges for it and it doesn't take up much space.

It was my everyday printer in 1992!

SteveW

Reply to
Steve Walker

Brian Gaff formulated on Tuesday :

Actually, no they do not!

The paper rolls past the drum, as the drum rotates. Some Laser printers have a very good, flat paper path.

Reply to
Harry Bloomfield

Bob Minchin laid this down on his screen :

A laser printer does not wick, the toner is a plastic, which is fixed/ melted onto the paper by heat.

Reply to
Harry Bloomfield

Nevretheless sone pares do cause smearing and wicking and some will allow teh print to be wiped off.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

There may be a manual feed for the thickest material that goes through one less internal bend. Mine will take 140gsm though I generally never go beyond 120gsm. The thicker and stiffer it is the more likely it is to cause trouble by not taking up or fixing the toner properly.

Some inkjets have a completely straight print material path and can take really thick things like CDs and heavy cardboard.

Reply to
Martin Brown

Some flat enough that they can be hacked to print direct onto PCBs, the toner needs to be chemically (rather that heat) fused before etching.

Reply to
Andy Burns

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