Inkjet Print Direct To Leather

[Reegesc]

Has anyone else tried this?

I discovered quite by experimental luck that my no-big-deal Brother Inkjet printer will accept and print on thin veg tan, in this case 3oz.

I had one of those “I wonder” moments and before the “Don’t do it, you’ll ruin the printer!” warning could kick in, a sheet-size piece of 3oz was working its way through my inkjet with no problem, (well there were a few internal groans).

After fiddling around with the color saturation of the image, I obtained a pretty impressive result that was crisp, detailed and around 80-85% paper color saturation. I bumped that up some more by going over the two major colors and using a sharpie to highlight the borders and certain features.

Pretty cool stuff -- opens up all sorts of possibilities that I'm looking forward to try and maybe one of those is ruining the printer after all.

I guess it shouldn't come as much of a surprise when you think about it. The only limitation would seem to be the thickness that your printer will accept. After that it’s just laying down ink, right?

Passport/Field Notes Case/Wallet

with Treasure Map Cover

[ChrisMajoue]

ok, now that's pretty darn cool. I have not thought about throwing a piece of leather through my printer, but that came out nice!

[electrathon]

I like this idea.

[Wild Bill46]

This thinking stirs the mind, I like how it turned out ! Good thinking --- Wild Bill

[Reegesc]

I tried again today and it was FAR harder. After two hours of messing around with it, I managed to get one image printed. The leather was a little thinner the first time and it was also cooler and less humid that particular day (the printer is in the garage). The thickness is an obvious issue, but environmentals can be a factor. The one image I was able to get today was after skiving the leading edge. Clearly the thinner the material, the more likely it will work. I have a bunch of paper-thin chrome that I'm certain will work, but what's the point? Might as well print on black card stock. But ....? well....? maybe not. A B&W image might work just fine on chrome.

You know what occurred to me as I was researching this further and thinking about the process? This is tattooing leather. It's exactly what it is. Instead of needles, it's a jet injecting the ink...under the skin. The first thing that I noticed about this process was how well "set" the ink was as soon as it came out of the printer. I expected it to smudge, but it didn't because the ink was underneath the surface, just like a tattoo. After realizing that, I spent a couple hours searching for a cool tattoo to print. My lord, there are so many cool tattoos out there.

I also did some printer research and found that that 3 oz leather is roughly 6 times the acceptable range for my printer, and yours too... all low-end printers for that matter. Oh, yeah, and you're only supposed to use their ink.!!! Btw, Brother is the last of the manufactures that haven't engineered a built-in ban on generic cartridges. You can buy Brother generic ink cartridges for less than a buck on Amazon and eBay. And Brother printers will print on leather! Sorta. Keep that in mind next time you're looking at printers.

I also looked for hacks, but didn't find anything. Epson gets high marks for handling thick cardstock as do printers that have menu option selections for heavy paper (mine doesn't have that). Supposedly rear manual feed printers are thick friendly, but that wasn't true in my case. Mine prefers feeding from the tray.

My next step, is to hack into my printer and figure out how to adjust whatever the bottleneck is. I'll bet it's nothing more than a sensor that needs to point somewhere else.

Here's the image that I printed -- one pass and one coat of Sad Lac to saturate the colors

.

Note the stuttering at the top of the image where it must have hopped around a bit while the printer was deciding what to do with it. That didn't happen on the my first two treasure map prints.

Here is what the image looks like on my monitor.

You can tell there's some degradation with the printed version, but it's not a bad reproduction all thing considered.

Edited June 20, 2015 by cseeger

[impulse]

Rather than trying to get your printer to accept leather, have you thought of trying Inkjet Iron-on Transfers? These are available for not only white or light coloured T-shirts, but also for dark/black fabrics as well. The instructions advise allowing the transfer to dry for 30mins, but it is best if using veg tanned leather to iron on immediately (using baking paper between the transfer and iron). Chrome tanned leather is different and will not absorb the ink - in this case, let the transfer dry before ironing and spray with a matt fixative, as used in protecting watercolour paints.

Have fun!

Lois

[LumpenDoodle2]

I do a bit of bookbinding, and have decorated several book covers by feeding the leather through my inkjet printer. I've only ever printed on very fine leather or book fabric. The results have been quite nice.

I have painted on some button polish on top of the print to seal it. Don't know how neccessary that is, but it seems to work.

[Reegesc]

@ LumpenDoodle -- That is such a cool name, almost as cool as "Fergle", my all time fave.

So....LumpenDoodle.... you've just been sitting on this secret all this time? Hmmm....? You know, I have googled this concept several times and not ONCE has your name or tip shown up. Well, at least you came clean.

I'd like to see some examples of that work, if you're so inclined to share.

And welcome to the forum. ;-)

Edited June 20, 2015 by cseeger

[LumpenDoodle2]

Neccessity is the mother of invention, as the story goes.

I do metal detecting, and hit on the idea of making little A5 books of the history of the farms, and finds made for my farmers. Not having the skill or all the tools at the start for gold foil work on the covers, I decided to try out my printer. To my surprise, it worked.

I've done maybe 1/2 dozen book covers over the past 2 years, and never thought to take any photos of the front of the books.

Never occurred to me that no-one else was doing this.

Possibly if you googled Detecting Goodies you might have more success ;-)

Edited June 20, 2015 by LumpenDoodle2

[Reegesc]

"never thought to take any photos" .....ah, of course, you're an artist.

Were you able to mimimc gold foil?

[Reegesc]

"You could have "God" embroidered on your bunnet."

I see your point. Had the google search all wrong. Apologies. That is very cool.

[LumpenDoodle2]

"never thought to take any photos" .....ah, of course, you're an artist.

Were you able to mimimc gold foil?

No artist, just a busy bunny who keeps forgetting she has a camera. :-)

Never tried mimicking gold, as I've never had the time to play about with the medium, and I just have a bog standard A3 printer. The ink medium has advanced a lot even in the last year or two, so the potential for mimicking gold foil on leather via a printer is feasable.

I do what I can to try out stuff, and if someone buys it. One up for me. :-()

Edited June 20, 2015 by LumpenDoodle2

[Northmount]

Here is another thread about printing on leather.

Tom

[impulse]

I had to experiment after reading this post. Being an Aussie I have easy access to kangaroo leather, so gave it a try. Kangaroo is very thin (0.5 to 0.6mm) whilst being moderately stiff. It works a treat! The roo for making lace is a natural, veg tanned leather and takes the ink well.

Lois

[Panpan75]

Very interesting topic. One day when I have some time I will definitely have to try this. I was a graphic designer for 12 years and I think putting together leatherwork and graphic design is awesome.

[Reegesc]

@Impulse -- Thanks for the Roo tip. I'm ordering some now. Post a pic when you get a chance.

[Jimdad]

I have a bit of experience "exceeding manufacturer specifications" on printers, and may have a few useful tips:

1) Highest quality settings make the printer feed slower, which often helps reduce feed slips.

2) Tape or very lightly paste a piece of normal printer paper to the back. The rollers are made to grip paper, so this often solves grip problems

3) The manual feed option, if present on your printer, will make a straight path that also may reduce slip/grip problems

4) Some printers will have screws that can be used to adjust the height of the rollers-- not that they're made for that (though some are, but usually on very high end printers only). Instead it may be what actually secures the roller bar, but you can insert a washer in between to the height, making it much easier to feed very thick stock.

5) When all else fails, there are a variety of methods to transfer images to other materials: A bunch of techniques exist for this depending on printer type, though for inkjet the easiest might be printer to a transparency, "painting" your target with clear gel-medium, such as liquitex sells, and then burnishing your transparancy onto it. This will keep color vibrancy pretty nicely also since the ink isn't absorbed into the leather. Heat transfer JetPro soft-set works nicely, but image quality is a little less than normal printer paper, and you will definitely need to coat it afterwards to protect it or else normal wear & tear have it peeling off.

[Reegesc]

@Jimdad -- excellent tips. Thank you