A friend of mine is trying to print some invitations on her printer. The catch is that she needs to print a text on regular paper in gold. Does anyone know how to do this?
The second question is does anyone know of a good printer for printing color pictures and text?
First question: Asuming you’re talking about the shiny gold lettering that you get when you go to a professional printer, I think you’re out of luck; I’m unaware of any computer printer (at least at the consumer level) that supports that sort of ink. It would probably require a different technology than the standard ones we’re used to (i.e. ink jet, laser, dot matrix).
Your second question is more of an IMHO. I’d suggest starting your research at the various PC magazine websites; there are many that fit this requirement, but you’ll probably need to give more information, such as budget, required speed, desired technology, etc.
I’ve seen metallic foil that will fuse to paper through the heat of a laser printer. A Google search on “laser printer foil” came up with many hits, including what appears to be instructions here. You might also go to some place like Kinko’s and ask them if they carry anything like that.
For inkjet printers, evidently metallic ink cartridges exist, though I’ve never seen them in person. Googling on “inkjet metallic” also returned what appears to be several promising leads.
While no laser printer I know can print directly in gold, you can get excellent results with a foil transfer.
I haven’t used the stuff lately (I bought a large amount about 10 years ago, to use professionally, and the leftovers will probably last me the rest of my life), I used to get mine from 1-800-APAPERS
The term “transfer film” or foil is used many ways. Some, for example, allow you to print on transfer paper (in reverse) with various types of media (ink, dye sublimation, wax) and then iron it onto a surface like a mug or T-shirt. That’s not what you want.
What you want is a gold film on a ultra thin mylar backing. When a laser printer prints, the fuser roler actually melts the toner (a mixture of meltable plastic and carbon-black pigment) onto the paper. If you cut a small piece of foil transfer film (with any thin, easily removed tape or pad - special adhesive pads come with the foil, but they aren’t needed) gold side up onto a section of the page (e.g. the title) and then run it through the printer again (e.g. print a blank page on it), the toner will remelt again causing the foil to adhere to the black surface under it, but not the white un-tonered paper. Peel off the foil -et voila!- gold lettering that actually looks like a polished metal surface.
Most of the better on-line specialty print supply sites carry something like this. You aren’t just limited to shiny metal. They make a variety of metallic colors (copper, bronze, silve, gold, platinum, green, red blue, etc. ) and finishes (polished, matte, brushed, holographic prismatic, etc.)
I meant to also note that you aren’t limited to a laser printer. Any photocopier that uses a drum and toner (vs ink) will work to generate a gildable original (from say an injet original) and can also be used to fuse the metallic foil onto the paper. Either clothing or graphics irons can also be used to fuse the foil.
Though I mentioned white paper, it also works well on any black [very dramatic] or colored paper with a suitably smooth surface.
It might seem expensive at first, but if you cut a piece of sheet foil to the rough shape of the headline, or use roll foil, you really don’t have much waste, and a single sheet or roll can go a l-o-n-g way. At about $15/box (maybe $25 for an assortment with a few sheets of many types), from the first few sources I googled, it’s no more expensive (and may be cheaper) than the specialty ink or toner you were seeking would have been (if it existed)
If the area that you want to gild is closely surrounded by areas of black printing that you wish to remain black, you’ll have to take steps to ensure that the iron doesn’t get messed up by it; I’d recommend masking off any surrounding printing with baking parchment.