Printing Hybrid Projects

[rebcamm]

Hi, I have been scrapping for over a year and having my books bound by mpix.com, but i would like to do some hybrid projects from my home printer. I have tried printing them at home and the colors never come out right. What does everyone use for treat toppers, tumblers, invites, etc? A certain paper, printer, or a professional printing company? Thanks so much, Christy BTW I love SMJ kits. They are sooo great!

[MandaKay]

Personally Christy I have an Epson printer and use the Epson Presentation Matte Photo paper. I have always heard it is best to use the paper that goes with your printer if they have it, but I know alot of people swear by the Epson Matte paper! I print off the treat toppers with no problem! I have just a basic Epson copier/scanner/printer machine - I don't think it is anything fancy and I have never callibrated the colors or anything! Good luck and we hope you share any hybrid projects you do!

[Andrea]

I have only done a few hybrid projects, and I only have a lame, cheap printer that came for free with our kids computer, lol. So I always send EVERYTHING I make to Costco to print and I have never had any complaints! Hope that helps!

(And I'm sure there are decent home printers, I just don't have one, lol)

[Shabby Miss Jenn]

OH you are adorable Christy! :) I usually do use my printer. For some reason the colors come out great. Could be the monitor calibration on yours though. Or maybe try a new printer? Or try Costco or other print places like that for quick easy projects. I personally hate waiting if I order a hybrid project for a lab to do it. BUT...I do wait sometimes. LOL I do love my printer. It's an HP and is super quick. :) OH so glad you came to share your thoughts with us! :)

xoxoxox

[rebcamm]

Thanks so much girls. The colors come out great on photo paper, guess I thought i needed to use cardstock or something other than photo paper. So I am ready, just feed in my regular photo paper. Thanks again, Christy :D

[lily24]

Isnt it amazing what a change in paper will do? I had the same problem when I first started printing stuff out - as soon as I switched to photo paper, the colours just popped of the page.


Mind you, I often get my stuff printed at the photo shop. Most of my hybrid projects are small and I can usually fit them on either 4x6 or 5x7 photos and cause I pre-pay for my photos, they are super cheap (around 3-5 pence in the UK or 6 -10 cents in the US). Alot of the online processing shops do other discount (like buy one set, get second set 50% off). :cool:

[Cathy Pascual]

I also have an epson printer and only use epson matte photo paper for printing out digi stuff. Printing on cardstock tends to get a little muddy, less clear than photo paper.

good luck!

[Joanne Swain]

Hi, I have been scrapping for over a year and having my books bound by mpix.com, but i would like to do some hybrid projects from my home printer. I have tried printing them at home and the colors never come out right. What does everyone use for treat toppers, tumblers, invites, etc? A certain paper, printer, or a professional printing company? Thanks so much, Christy BTW I love SMJ kits. They are sooo great!

I am using and older hp deskjet 810 c and it is better then any of the newer ones my husband has..the cartridges run about 100 dollars but last me all year for lots of printing projects, the colors are awesome on both card stock and photo paper, I find it the best bang for my dollar regarding the ink..but have on my wish list a new model hp.

[Plucky]

I use an HP Photosmart 7960 and print at home. I do, however print everything from within the Adobe Photoshop CS3 program, my monitor is calibrated and the color space in Photoshop is going to be exactly what it looks like on my monitor. I do sometimes raise the saturation of the colors about 15% when using matte paper products, like for cards or covered boxes. I find that helps a bunch in getting bright colors since matte paper absorbs more ink. Good Luck with your hybrid projects.

~Katy~
SMJ Hybrid Queen

[MandaKay]

Oh - good tip to print within photoshop - I to have noticed before when printing that if I just print from Windows or without photoshop that the colors are a bit different!

[schmoo]

I use a Canon printer and I always use Canon paper and normally print to matte. I also calibrate my monitor because I found that the colours were different, I use a laptop. And I always print my layouts/projects from PSE using the PSD file.

Glad you got your colour problem sorted out.

Sue