• TheEmpireStrikesDak@thelemmy.club
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    3 months ago

    What type of printer/paper do you use? I find cheap photo paper works well for high res on my inkjet, although it can fade if you leave it in the sun. I’ve been using vinyl sticker sheets for customising my bike and it seems to be holding well, but I did laminate them with sticky back plastic first.

    There’s also the sellotape trick, but that only works for laser printers and you obviously can’t print white.

    • tourist@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      The printer is the cheapest canon inkjet printer I could find new in 2021. I don’t have access to the exact model name rn

      I think I have glossy photo paper. I also had a few sheets of postcard size sticker paper that was not glossy and didn’t fade, but I recall it being stupid expensive, or that specific brand at least. I cannot remember the name. Would not survive the elements though.

      I thought about laminating it but I wasn’t sure if the heat would fuck the adhesive

      • TheEmpireStrikesDak@thelemmy.club
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        3 months ago

        When I say laminate, I just mean the rolls of sticky back plastic. I don’t know if it’s called something else in your part of the world.

        It’s the stuff we used to use to protect our exercise books at school. You can buy special laminating vinyl but this stuff is cheaper.

        Acid free sticky tape (scotch tape in the US?) will also work for smaller stickers, just make sure the sort you use doesn’t yellow. In my experience, glossy photo paper scratches easily and has to have a layer over it to seal it, plastic is the easiest option (also remembering when I made over 200 trading cards on photo paper and had to design, cut and laminate them all by hand lol).

        I did test the brand of vinyl paper I used with water and it did hold up. I’ve only had it on my bike for a few months, but so far it doesn’t seem to have yellowed or faded. I probably should have cut out the sticky back plastic to be bigger than the sticker though.

        • tourist@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          OHHH that kind of lamination. Completely forgot that was an option.

          I was thinking about those laminating machines that fully seal the printouts with plastic sheets.

          I’m going to look into getting my hands on some vinyl paper. I appreciate it, bud