Postcard Printing

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paulbilly

Does anyone know what would be the best printer and card for printing
postcards with a photo on one side and printed text on the other,
suitable for being posted?
 
Does anyone know what would be the best printer and card for printing
postcards with a photo on one side and printed text on the other,
suitable for being posted?
Click to expand...

I used my Canon ip3000 for 3x5 cards. The only issue I had was it
didn't do boarderless for any paper size not pre-programed into it's
driver like 3x5, which is typicaly true for most printers. But given
4x6 photopaper is common just about any inkjet will do postcard size
rather well, even classic 89mmx127mm (3.5 x 5in) size. I just checked
my ip5200 to see if "postcard" was listed... and it is though not by
name.

Epson dye printers and Canon are probally the most idea for postcards.
They both have the rear feeder for the more straight path, and both
offer a reasonable dry time for the ink and work well with microporous
which are somewhat water resistent. Canon and many HPs are more idea
as they "tend" to have a pigmented black tank for plain paper which is
exactly the sort of thing you'd want to post. Epson offers consumer
level pigment printers, as in pigments for all colors, which while
being slower to dry are more rezilient, but tend to be fickle and prone
to clogging for users who don't print often.

If going dye, the trick is finding photo paper which doesn't mind being
printed on the bac, a feature often undocumented.
 
Printing on the back seems to be the biggest issue I'm coming accross,
Click to expand...

As I mentioned in a post regarding business cards, you can buy glossy
photo full sheet labels, or matte full sheet labels. I've used
Hammermill, Office Depot, and currently have a huge amount of HP ones.
You won't be able to center it perfectly, the best way to do it would
be to print on one side, put the sticker on the back, cut out the
cards, then put them back in and print on the other side.

So far I have not had any issues with 'peel off', attempts to remove
the labels, even when wet, result in the photo paper itself peeling in
half, not the sticker coming off.

---

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paulbilly said:
Printing on the back seems to be the biggest issue I'm coming accross,
Click to expand...

Ah, then you are looking for paper, and don't wish to use a standard
address label and declare victory.

Epson glossy photo paper I remember was passable printing on the back
on the back of, but it did have a faint logo. But my data is 2 years
old.
 
I've just printed postcards on both sides, which I designed with Msoft
Publisher, and using Tescos one-sided glossy card. I printed the matte side
first to keep the gloss pristine, and printed four cards on each A5 sheet -
then guillotined them. They look great!
 
I used my Canon ip3000 for 3x5 cards. The only issue I had was it
didn't do boarderless for any paper size not pre-programed into it's
driver like 3x5, which is typicaly true for most printers. But given
4x6 photopaper is common just about any inkjet will do postcard size
rather well, even classic 89mmx127mm (3.5 x 5in) size. I just checked
my ip5200 to see if "postcard" was listed... and it is though not by
name.
Click to expand...
<snipped>

I've printed borderless 3x5's using my iP4000 and iP3000. It's easy if you
think outside of the confines imposed with printer drivers. Using any DTP
application such as Publisher or PagePlus, I leave the paper setting at
letter size and simply position the 3x5 image in the upper left portion of
what the printer thinks is a letter size sheet. The same technique applies
to other odd sized media such as invitation envelopes, post cards, etc...
The only problem is there is a small area of white space, about 1/16", on
the tail end of the item when printing borderless. Even with 4x6 which is
supported by the printer driver, this occurs with any program other than
Canon Easy Photo Print.
 
I've printed borderless 3x5's using my iP4000 and iP3000. It's easy if you
think outside of the confines imposed with printer drivers. Using any DTP
application such as Publisher or PagePlus, I leave the paper setting at
letter size and simply position the 3x5 image in the upper left portion of
what the printer thinks is a letter size sheet. The same technique applies
to other odd sized media such as invitation envelopes, post cards, etc...
The only problem is there is a small area of white space, about 1/16", on
the tail end of the item when printing borderless. Even with 4x6 which is
supported by the printer driver, this occurs with any program other than
Canon Easy Photo Print.
Click to expand...

I'll try this again when I need a slew of 3x5s. The last time I tried
in Word anything larger than 3x5 it would assume left was well... left
and print off the page. I tried to define the page in word as 3x5 and
print letter in the Canon driver and it crashed. I imagine I would
have less issues with real DTP package, though it would be overkill in
my case as I was using 3x5s for notes, as in text.
 
paulbilly said:
Does anyone know what would be the best printer and card for printing
postcards with a photo on one side and printed text on the other,
suitable for being posted?
Click to expand...

Check out Moab Paper Company. They have a 300 GSM card that works very
well on my Epson 760s, 860s and 1160. They actually specialize in fine
art paper, so it's dull (not high gloss) on both sides, but their 300
GSM "Entrada" brand makes postcards look like fine works of art.
 
zakezuke said:
I'll try this again when I need a slew of 3x5s. The last time I tried
in Word anything larger than 3x5 it would assume left was well... left
and print off the page. I tried to define the page in word as 3x5 and
print letter in the Canon driver and it crashed. I imagine I would
have less issues with real DTP package, though it would be overkill in
my case as I was using 3x5s for notes, as in text.
Click to expand...
Having used Microsoft Publisher since version 1 in 1992, I'm somewhat tied
to the product and the ease of positioning text frames and objects vs. the
freeform style of MS Word. There's a good chance you already own Publisher,
but if you don't, Serif PagePlus is a great alternative (some say better).
You can get free copies of older versions of Serif products from one of
their websites www.freeserifsoftware.com. With either Publisher or PagePlus
you don't need to modify printer settings at all to print odd sized items. I
leave the printer settings at letter size and position the text or object
frames to conform to where the paper is positioned in the printer. With
Canon models it's the upper left corner. With my Lexmark laser, it's
centered at the top edge.
 
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