Hints for Specialty Papers
by Maureen Williams

This information and other hints & tips for using your computer
 for your craft work is also contained on my video cd-rom titled
 "Computer Awareness for Egg Artistry".

When working with specialty papers (e.g. decal, paper, prepared fabric, high gloss photo film,  etc) it can become an expensive exercise if you only want to print out one or two images.

 In most cases you will probably just fill up the page with images you might want to use later, rather than waste the rest of the page. 

Using this technique you will be able to print a single image without unnecessary wastage.

Testing your Printer.
The first thing you need to do is determine which side of the paper your printer prints onto, so you know how to feed the specialty paper into your printer.

On a normal sheet of printer paper draw an arrow.

Feed the sheet of paper into your printer with the arrow on top of the sheet and the tip feeding in first.

Select a small image as a test print and send it to the printer. Where does it print out in relation to the arrow?

On Canon printers, the top of the sheet fed into the printer is where the image will print. This may vary on other brands - some even print on the opposite side of the paper.

This test is very important if your printer has an internal paper tray so you know which way to place the paper in the tray.

Once you have determined where your printer is going to print on a sheet of paper, do a print of the image you want to print onto the specialty paper, using the draft setting on the printer. This will save on ink.

Now cut a small piece of the desired specialty paper approximately 2 cm or 3/4" larger all round than the size of the image.

Tape the specialty paper (with the back of the paper to the image) over the test print on the piece of computer paper. Leave sufficient clearance around the around the edge of the image so you don't print onto the tape.

Make sure the edges are fastened down securely so the tape doesn't catch in the printer when you feed the piece of paper into the printer.

Change the print setting on the printer to your desired setting (e.g. high gloss photo) and reprint your image.

Carefully remove the tape and you have your individual image printed onto the specialty paper of your choice with minimum wastage.