"No spray" decal paper

[Sidney Schwartz]

Came across this decal paper on Amazon and decided to give it a go.

Amazon.com: KOALA Matte Waterslide Decal Paper for INKJET & LASER Printers, No Need Spray Coating, White 8.5x11 Inch Water Slide Paper for DIY Tumbler, Mug, Nail Crafts, 5 Sheets : Office Products

Works like a charm. Printed off a plaid pattern for some seats. Image is nice and sharp. The ink seemed already dry immediately after printing, but I gave it about 10 minutes anyway. Into the water, worked perfectly.

[iBorg]

Looks really good. What kind of printer did you use?

I wonder what would happen if you cleared over it?

Edited May 10, 2023 by iBorg
Added to my reply.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Well that's pretty dangity cool. I need something like that to do plaid seats in an old Mercedes race car. Have to give it a try.

[Sidney Schwartz]

2 hours ago, iBorg said:

Looks really good. What kind of printer did you use?

I wonder what would happen if you cleared over it?

My printer is an Epson XP-4100. I did spray some flat clear over those decals and had no problem. No smearing or running...looked great!

[Sidney Schwartz]

2 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

Well that's pretty dangity cool. I need something like that to do plaid seats in an old Mercedes race car. Have to give it a try.

It was pretty easy to do. Googled plaid patterns and found one withthe colors I wanted. Used Gimp to tile that  image to cover get a larger area, pasted that into MS Word and used that to scale it down and print it. Put some masking tape on the seats and cut out patterns for the areas I wanted to cover, then stuck the patterns on the back of the printed decal paper and cut out the decals. Worked pretty well, but I'm going to redo it and pay more attention to matching up the pattern on the seat backs and bottoms.

[Bugatti Fan]

Looks like a very useful new product with many possibilities.

Is the transfer paper produced in white or clear as domestic printers are generally set up to print onto white paper and cannot print white onto clear?

Will have to remember the Koala brand name. I would imagine it will also be available over here in the UK in ISO A4 size.

[Sidney Schwartz]

2 hours ago, Bugatti Fan said:

Looks like a very useful new product with many possibilities.

Is the transfer paper produced in white or clear as domestic printers are generally set up to print onto white paper and cannot print white onto clear?

Will have to remember the Koala brand name. I would imagine it will also be available over here in the UK in ISO A4 size.

Looks like their "no spray" version is only available in white, not clear. Here's the company's web site...

Koala Photo Paper, Heat Transfer Paper & Inkjet Film (koalagp.com)

 

[TooOld]

2 hours ago, Sidney Schwartz said:

Looks like their "no spray" version is only available in white, not clear. Here's the company's web site...

Koala Photo Paper, Heat Transfer Paper & Inkjet Film (koalagp.com)

 

The "No Spray" is actual paper not a decal film like we all have been using or years , that's why it's only available in matte white . It's much thicker , has no adhesive , can't be repositioned (it tears) , and setting solutions have no effect on it . You may as well just use regular copy paper .

[Sidney Schwartz]

5 hours ago, TooOld said:

The "No Spray" is actual paper not a decal film like we all have been using or years , that's why it's only available in matte white . It's much thicker , has no adhesive , can't be repositioned (it tears) , and setting solutions have no effect on it . You may as well just use regular copy paper .

The decals I made with it act like any other decals. They slide off the paper backing when wet, and look and feel and act like decals. Walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, not paper. 

[Tom Geiger]

A good place to steal fabric photos is the Joanne’s store website.. literally thousands of patterns!

[SfanGoch]

6 minutes ago, Sidney Schwartz said:

The decals I made with it act like any other decals. They slide off the paper backing when wet, and look and feel and act like decals. Walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, not paper. 

I'll take your word since you're actually using it.

[Sidney Schwartz]

1 hour ago, Tom Geiger said:

A good place to steal fabric photos is the Joanne’s store website.. literally thousands of patterns!

Good suggestion!

[yh70]

i dont use much white , but its cheap on Amazon so ill get some just to have on hand..

[peteski]

12 hours ago, TooOld said:

The "No Spray" is actual paper not a decal film like we all have been using or years , that's why it's only available in matte white . It's much thicker , has no adhesive , can't be repositioned (it tears) , and setting solutions have no effect on it . You may as well just use regular copy paper .

Here is a direct link to that paper's page. The description states that it is a real waterside paper.  This is a great development for home-brewed  decals.  Yes, it is only white, but printing ink jet decal on clear only really works when they are applied over a white surface anyway

Edited May 11, 2023 by peteski

[GMP440]

16 hours ago, Sidney Schwartz said:

My printer is an Epson XP-4100. I did spray some flat clear over those decals and had no problem. No smearing or running...looked great!

Is that and ink jet printer?

[SfanGoch]

Ink jet.

[NOBLNG]

They do list a clear waterslide paper for inkjet printers.

[Sidney Schwartz]

2 hours ago, GMP440 said:

Is that and ink jet printer?

Yes, it's this one...

C11CG33201 | Epson Expression Home XP-4100 Small-in-One Printer | Inkjet | Printers | For Home | Epson US

It's a great little printer. The only drawback is that it will not accept the third part replacement cartridges that I had used in the past with other printers. We don't do a lot of printing so I'm willing to shell out the extra quatloos for Epson's cartridges.

 

[peteski]

59 minutes ago, NOBLNG said:

They do list a clear waterslide paper for inkjet printers.

Yes, but on that one they don't tout the fact that it is "no clear needed" paper. It still needs a clear overspray to protect the ink from dissolving in water.

Edited May 11, 2023 by peteski

[Sidney Schwartz]

Not perfect, but an improvement over the first one. Adds a nice touch, I think.

[martinfan5]

Well this is really interesting , I think I might need to get a pack to try out .

[iamsuperdan]

I have the clear Koala decal paper, and it definitely requires a spray.

Will have to try this no-spray version. I like the sound of that.

 

[Straightliner59]

I've used Koala's products with pretty decent results. I will try this, for sure. Their regular white is slightly thicker than the clear, but I haven't had any issues with it. Here are a couple of examples: The graphics on the Vega, and the polar bear logo on the Supermodified are the white. If I would ever take the time to learn to use my Cricut, those could have been cut out much more nicely. The "El Centro" on the Supermod's hood  is on the clear...

Edited May 11, 2023 by Straightliner59

[howsthat1959]

For cloth interior seat inserts and such, i design the image in one of many drawing programs, or download a patter and then scale it using Microsoft Word. I print on normal weight copy paper and use Amy's quick drying craft glue to attach the cloth. I've attached a picture of 76 Cadillacs with the absurd green plaid cloth inserts available back then as an example. I done this on dozens of cars requiring complete cloth seat patterns. 

[Deathgoblin]

Nifty!!    I'll have to try it out.