I've been experimenting with reproducing holograms using an inkjet
printer for some time now, and I just recently refined my method enough
to produce nearly flawless ones. Hopefully this will help you.
To start off, print your seal in yellow onto the inside of your pouch.
Some people suggest making the yellow "lighter" so that the final
hologram won't be as opaque, but this is bad idea. You want as much ink
on there as possible, so print it at full strength.
Afterwards, dust the wet ink with whatever color powder you will be
using. Don't make a mess - mask off the areas of the pouch where there
are no holograms, so you won't have to clean them up later. Also, make
sure that when you're spreading around the powder, you don't scrape the
surface of the pouch and smear the ink.
Blow on the pouch to get off the bulk of the excess powder. At this
point, the holograms you want should be visible, but they will still be
surrounded by a lot of loose powder that sticks to the textured plastic
surface of the pouch. To clean it up further, you need a can of air
duster. It's just a $4 can of compressed air used for cleaning out
between the keys of keyboards, you can buy it at any computer store.
Put the little red straw in so you have a concentrated jet of air, and
CAREFULLY spray off the rest of that powder while the ink is still wet.
You'll discover that you don't need too much air to clear it off well,
just take your time. If you go overboard, you'll ruin some of the finer
details, like small text, so be especially careful in those areas.
When you're done, there will still be a sparkly residue in the areas
you airdusted, and the holograms will look odd from the yellow ink, but
thats OK, you're not done yet. All you need now is a damp paper towel.
Lay it down over the entire hologram area at once and apply firm
pressure. Don't be afraid to use some force, press that paper towel
down and make sure you've applied pressure to every area. Of course,
make sure not to slide it around either.
After you're done, carefully peel up the paper towel and check out what
you've got. The paper towel has lifted all of the yellow ink from the
holograms, which now look perfect, and the area around them is 99% free
of residue. There will still be some stray sparkly bits, but if you
have a steady hand and a soft-tipped tool (wet paper towel wrapped over
the end of a flathead screwdriver worked for me), you can clean it up
even better with a little freehanding. Give it a few minutes to dry and
you're good to laminate. Stray sparkles are even less apparent once
there is some colorful material laminated under them, so don't kill
yourself trying to get every one with the freehanding.
I am very, very pleased with the results I have gotten from this
technique. Although I'm sure you could drop a couple hundred bucks on
an ALPS and get marginally better results, for the cost of a can of
airduster, masking tape and paper towels, I think you will find this
method to be a great substitute.
Post by d***@gmail.comCan I get some tips on reproducing holos with inkjets. I have been
printing on pouches with light ink, then dusting it with interference
gold, but it doesn't seem to be working as well as I hoped. Any advice?