Dumb Question: Can my printer print white?

Soldato
Joined
28 Sep 2004
Posts
8,540
This is going to sound really stupid but yeh, I have an image in photoshop I have created with three pure white #fff stripes across the page, but when I go to print it it just acts like it isnt there, I'm printing onto coloured paper just to let you know.

So yeh, How can I get my printer to print these lines (the thing I'm printing has no background, so transparent apart from these stripes and some text) My epson c66 should be able to seen as I have done in photo's before; but how can I get this to work.

Haha, oh dear... :( :confused:
 
To do it you would need to print on to white paper, but make the bits where the coloured paper was coloured the same as the paper.(If that makes any sense.) As mentioned above, the printer doesn't have white ink. It only has Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and black (And possibly light cyan, light magenta and light yellow)
 
RandomTom said:
That's true, so what's the closest to white I can print? :)

It wouldn't print something with 1% CYM 0% K.

That wouldn't worj either. Printers work by adding colour together to produce darker colours. It relies on the paper to be white to produce paler colours. If you printed a really pale colour onto coloured paper, it would simply come out slightly darker than the coloured paper.
 
Get one of those ink cartridge refill kits and some tipp-ex. Job done :p





I accept no responsibility for the almost certain failure for this to work, and even more certain destruction of your printer
 
White isnt a colour and cant be made up by mixing colours together, same thing with paint, try and make white with primary colours isnt possible. Like someone just said the printer mixes the colour together to make dark colours. lol @ tipex , why tipex and not white paint? ;)
 
Jacob334 said:
White isnt a colour and cant be made up by mixing colours together, same thing with paint, try and make white with primary colours isnt possible. Like someone just said the printer mixes the colour together to make dark colours. lol @ tipex , why tipex and not white paint? ;)

White is a colour, but it requires additive colour rather than subtractive colour. For example a monitor uses additive colour to make white out of red, green and blue, whereas printing uses subtractive colour.
 
The tippex will most definately fail.

The only way to do this is to either print onto white paper or make a composite onto which you are printing.
 
Shoseki said:
The tippex will most definately fail.

The only way to do this is to either print onto white paper or make a composite onto which you are printing.

I think he was joking about the tippex (at least I hope he was), I was going to suggest the same but was beaten to it ;)
 
Minstadave said:
I think he was joking about the tippex (at least I hope he was), I was going to suggest the same but was beaten to it ;)

Well, I was going to say, ink that goes into printers has all sorts of properties that aids its distribution and absorbance.
 
Minstadave said:
I think he was joking about the tippex (at least I hope he was), I was going to suggest the same but was beaten to it ;)
Yeah I was joking, in case anyone was about to go and do it. Though I would be intruigued to see the results :D
 
lol, the print head would just block up :) tipex is prolly too think, so add some water!

I think someone should write into brainiac and find out the answer!
 
Energize said:
Whites a shade not a colour iirc. Which is why colourblind people can see black and white.

Black and white colourblindness is quite rare. Most colourblindness only affects red and green. White is both colour and a shade.
 
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