Printing White Text on Colored Paper

Here's the real skinny. Has nothing to do with red-blue-green or cmyk.

Printing "white"

Standard desktop inkjet and laser pritners cannot print "white" because
there is no "white" toner or ink available for them.

When you see white type on a colored background what you are seeing is the
type "knocked out" of the background, letting the paper show through. If you
used yellow paper, the type would be yellow.

There are some specialized printers that can print white because they do not
use toner or standard inkjet inks. Most of these are very expensive (tens of
thousands of dollars). Some use thermal ribbons (often used for printing
name badges). Brands would include Fargo, Gerber, and Roland.

Recently a new genertion of high end large format printers has come out that
can print white, but I don't think you're interested in dropping $50,000+ or
making the necessary environmental management arrangements for one of these
beasts.

Also...applications handle white as an absence of any color. When using a
white capable device, the color would need to be specified differently in
the application.



"KG" wrote in message
...
Help!
I am trying to create a Flyer and the paper I am printing
is already colored. I wanted to print some white text,
however, when I go to print, the white is clear and my
paper color comes through. Also, I have a picture of a
house on the file and where the sidewalk is I can see
nothing but my background. Anybody know how to get
around this issue?

Thanks

Hi RSD99 ),
in the newsgroups
you posted:

|| Sara ... you definitely need to do some more studying on your basic
|| color theory, you've got quite a few errors in your posting.
||
|| Oh ... and additionally, your statement
|| "...There are some printers (dye sub (short for subtraction)) ..."
||
|| Is "just slightly" off.
||
|| The 'sub' is short for sublimation.
||
|| It's a chemical term meaning to transform directly from the solid to
|| the gaseous state or from the gaseous to the solid state without
|| becoming a liquid.
||
|| This is the process that is used to deposit the color medium(s) in
|| "Dye Sub" printers. And ... oh yes ... it *is* possible to print
|| white. All you need is white ink (probably created using either
|| titanium dioxide or magnesium dioxide as the primary colorant).

You're STILL here for more punishment? :-)

--
Brian Kvalheim
Microsoft Publisher MVP
http://www.mvps.org/publisher

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