When printing papers with metallic finishes, we recommend laser over inkjet because generally, the wet ink of an inkjet printer does not adhere well to the finish. However, if you read on, you’ll learn that a little experimentation can lead to a happy printing discovery!

Stardream Crystal Business Cards

Earlier this week, I saw this Tweet from RedMonkeyPress:

With Twitter’s short, 140 character limit, I’ve learned that a little research and some knowledge of the subject matter is required to decipher certain Tweets. First, “Crystal-colored Stardream” is a brand and color of specialty paper with a metallic finish. With the keywords “wait 24 hours” and “smudging ink” in mind, I deduced that this person had made a previous attempt to print on Stardream stock with an inkjet printer and had smudged the ink by handling the paper before the ink had dried. With a few more clicks on RedMonkeyPress’s Twitter profile I could see that at least two of her designs on Red Monkey Press featured inkjet printed Stardream card stock, so evidently she was printing these business cards the same way. What pleased me is that she overcame the challenge and seemed to be relieved that it worked. I was happy to read a success story about Stardream inkjet printing at home. It reminded me of another success story that my co-worker, Barry Levine, had told me about just a few days earlier.

Stardream Envelopes

Barry was working on a personal project and was trying to match a certain Pantone color, 272 C, for printing on Crystal Stardream envelopes. At first, he tried to match the color by printing with his color laser printer, but he wasn’t happy with the results. He decided to experiment and test with his Canon Pixma MP600 inkjet printer. His inkjet allows for more accurate color matching than his color laser, but up until this moment, had not been tested with Stardream metallic paper.

Barry was thrilled when he saw that his Canon inkjet printer not only printed the correct color on the envelope, but also printed without smearing. As an extra bonus, the ink was completely dry as soon as he took it from the printer output tray and rubbed his fingers over the printing.

A9 Stardream Opal Envelopes

I was also excited about the thought of inkjet printing on Stardream, so I tested an envelope in our Epson Stylus Photo R1900 that I reviewed in November 2009. I printed brown ink on an A9 Stardream Opal envelope. The results were mixed. The ink did not smear and the text was sharp, but under saturated.

For most eyes, especially at a normal viewing distance, the quality would probably be acceptable. When I ran my fingers over the text, there was no smudging. The ink was absolutely dry.

Experiment and Test at Home

After reading about these printing examples, you too may want to consider testing metallic specialty papers in your inkjet printer. See the results for yourself. Touch the printed ink and see if it smudges. With more testing, you’ll be able to determine about how much time the particular paper needs to dry. On certain inkjet printers, the ink might never properly adhere. On others, you may find that the ink has fully adhered and is completely dry to the touch seconds after printing. Plus, you may achieve better color matching that you would on a color laser printer. Does a thicker card stock mean the ink might take longer to dry? Do certain ink colors look more saturated on certain color metallic papers? You can learn a lot by ordering samples and testing.

We’d love to read about your home printing experiences with metallic specialty papers on both laser and inkjet printers. If you’d like to share, post a comment here so that we can interact with you.