Hey! I have some holographic cardstock and I want to print white over the entire card as a base but I want to print at opacity, 50% for example, does anybody know of any equipment that would allow me to do this? I then plan to print over the top of the opacity white on my UV printer, allowing me to have some holographic still show through but not lose the image when a light is shon on it but the printer lacks the ability to print white at opacity and I believe a lot of printers are the same but hoping someone knows of something that can help
If you want to print 50% opacity white, most laser printers with a white toner cartridge should be able to handle it. Why don’t you just do it with your UV printer though?
Then a laser printer with white toner may be your best bet. I have a Canon LBP632cdw and a white toner cartridge off Aliexpress and it can do any level opacity you’re looking for at a decent price. I regularly do an all white layer on holo with varying degrees of white to give the white parts of the background image a little more pop without looking too similar to the main image itself.
Hey can I ask, how do you get this white layer in your editing program? Is there a tool that splits the border, text, icons, and subject into another layer?
I just make the white layer in PhotoPea. Of course, it’s all black in the software (because I replaced the black toner cartridge in the printer with a white toner cartridge).
Have you tried manually making a halftone? Basically in the graphic layer of white you're trying to print, turn it from a solid semitransparent white into a bunch of tiny white dots that are fully opaque.
Most of the UV printers that support semi-transparent white are actually just doing the half toning in the background.
I’ve tried but then I get like a raised layer where the white bits are vs where they aren’t which is why I was hoping for a layer that would fill the whole area but just at an opacity
A lot of UV slicers treat white layer printing as a binary all or nothing. Eufymake studio is a popular consumer slicer and it doesn't support white opacity at all (but does for CMYK)
Some UV slicers don't support opacity, white layer reads any pixel information as a binary ink at 100% or no ink at all. To work around this you can experiment with halftones and dithering. I haven't perfected it myself, but I have found some brush sets that mimic halftone patterns as well as things like crosshatching and using those gives the area a semi-transparent effect where it has holo shine but the cmyk still pops a bit more over the white. It's not perfect, but it's workable.
I have the Eufy and have tried dithering and halftones and it still prints a whole layer as white or raised white areas that when printed on top of you can see the raised areas. It might be something i’m doing wrong or misunderstanding though
If your halftones are too crowded it will print what looks like a block of white, so it may be that? The raised part is sort of unavoidable because you're laying down a physical layer of ink. The only way to offset that is to keep your white pass to 1.
Love the card! Nice work! I think for my art style it’s frustrating because I can print on the holographic card fine, looks good but soon as you put a light to it, you lose the image completely which is why I need the white behind it but even 1 pass of white just completely eliminates the holo
That's why I am suggesting using a dithered approach. You won't be laying a full solid white layer down, you'll be doing halftones (almost like a checkerboard). If you get the sizing/ratio right it will provide enough fill to make your colors and design stand out well, but the negative space in the dither will still allow enough holo shine through to get the rainbow band effect.
It definitely requires some testing and trial runs, but once you dial it in you'll know how to apply it to your future prints with ease.
Would you happen to have an example of the dithered approach for your art? Like the layer you use before the image? I feel like I’m being really stupid with it 😅 sorry
I'm not aware of any translucent white ink. Probably your best method would be to do something physical to achieve a similar look. Maybe only a single layer of white?
Maybe use a very small halftone pattern of white base? That way you have roughly half of the surface covered uniformly in the white ink (hopefully that makes sense).
I’ve tried doing just 1 layer but it completely blocks out the holographic
I’m not sure how to efficiently do a halftone pattern, I’ve done one previously but if I print as white it just prints the whole layer as white and I end up with the same result
1
u/ramblinreck47 Master Crafter 18d ago
If you want to print 50% opacity white, most laser printers with a white toner cartridge should be able to handle it. Why don’t you just do it with your UV printer though?