I found the easiest way to use them was to put the dry transfer onto a clear decal sheet and then cut out the letter/number and apply it as an ordinary decal.
That allowed me to fudge the decal around a bit to get it positioned properly before applying the decal setting solution to fix it to the model.
Trying to apply the dry transfers directly didn't work well as it always ended up a bit mispositioned and trying to fudge the transfer into position often resulted in messing the whole thing up. But turning it into an ordinary decal worked just fine.
They work fine, but remember that unlike traditional decals you aren't going to be able to slide it around on the surface to get it aligned properly. Once you rub it down, that's where it's going to stay. It's also important to be sure that you have completely rubbed it into place before removing the backing sheet or it will tear the decal apart.
Considering the heat most laser printers work at, that's putting it mildly. Your 1/72 scale Bf-109 wing would emerge as a 1/24 scale Bf-109 wing around as thick as a sheet of paper. :-D
They worked great. The big problem these days is availability. I used to get them in office supply stores. Since everyone has a graphic arts studio on their desk these days, office supply places (and art stores) do not carry them anymore :-(
Yeah, I did Google translation of that website. It is interesting considering that Alps no longer supports those MD printers anywhere else in the world. They only sell MD-5500 and its supplies in Japan. They also will not seel to anyone outside of Japan - it has been tried.
I'm all set for now with my MD-5000. But I might ping you in the future to get some Alps ink ribbon supplies. Alps Japan seems to seel a full range of inks at a very affordable price.
However since now I know the intended use I'm not sure how durable the decal will be if it is applied to a computer keyboard. Alps ink is wax (like a crayon) so it is not extremely durable. But it might be ok if oversprayed with a clear lacquer after applying it to the keycap.
But if you're ever planning on making decals for your models, this is the best printer for the job. It also makes some really nice business cards or portraits if you use the metallic and foil inks in conjunction with the standard inks. Those metallic inks are used for trim and borders. It is an awesome printer!
Interesting. I wonder if there is some problem with licenses or copyrights for the international market...
No problem, of course I will be happy to help.
Yes, I intend to do that. If it fails, I still have a useful printer, and I can still do the spraypainting of the key after suitable masking.
Thanks for that info. I wonder, is the 1200x1200dpi resolution sufficient for small sizes (like stencilling on panels in 1:72 scale)? I don't know the drop size or how the ink sits on the decal sheet, and haven't yet gone to see any examples of ALPS printer output.
That's not it. Alps is a large manufacturer of electronic components. They jumped into the consumer printer market in the mid-90s with they MicroDry printers with DyeSub capability. But that never really took off. They also sold those printers under OKI, Citizen and Kodak brands (and few others). In USA they stopped selling Alps MD printers in early 2000s. The still provided repairs and supplies un USA until 2007. Now they totally stopped supporting these in USA. There is still some support in Europe for the OKI version of these printers but that is also dwindling. I was also told that they closed down the factory that made those printers and their supplies.
They are still selling and supporting the MD-5500 in Japan. But they don't want the hassle of selling and supporting them abroad. These are great printers but they are extremely slow for everyday use. However they have a small but strong following mostly by cottage industry decal makers.
If you're interested, join the "Alps" and "alpsdecal" Yahoo groups and see what we're up to. There is also lots of useful info in the Files and Links sections of both groups.
Great, thanks!
No matter what the sales literature says, hese are physically 600x600 dpi printers. But even at that resolution they produce amazingly crisp small lettering. That is due to their thermal printing technology.
Bad news! I spoke with ALPS customer support today up in Fukushima prefecture. They've changed their sales model and are only doing internet retail now, with no showrooms and no possibility of viewing or touching the printers.
Peter, is there any chance of getting a rundown from you about the quality as far as you know? The new MD-5500 does 2400dpi, but I have absolutely no idea what the quality is supposed to be like: think small stencilled writing in white on a clear decal, like what you might find on WW2 USN aircraft panels, or black or gray stencils for modern aircraft. The kind of stuff that says how to open the panel, or whether the cap si for oil or gasoline, etc.... I cannot even imagine how good this is, or what its limitations are.
If the info appears commendable, I will buy one of these by mail order and let you guys know how it works (scans of prints on my webpage, for example).
OK, that confirms what I heard from their support staff over the phone today when I called them (see other post).
I can understand that.
wooheehh!!! :-) I think I am sold....
Excellent! I joined the list and asked a stupid question about resolution there. I hope it will benefit other newbies...
I also printed out your calibration JPG to see what 1.5 point font looks like. I don't have that available in my word processor, for example (6 point is the lowest I can get there), which looks excellent printed at 600x600 on my Canon inkjet. Although the JPG printed completely crappy on the Canon, I can understand that the jaggedness of the lines will not be visible to the naked eye! Fantastic!!!
I saw (and replied to) your post on alpsdecal forum. I'm glad that I was able to steer you towards the MD-5500.
Those scans of Alps printouts of the resolution test look a bit jagged because they were scaned to show a magnified image of the printout. You can't really see any of that when looking at the original printout with a naked eye.
I use Corel Draw. You can pick up older versions of Corel (Or Adobe Illustrator) on feeBay for short money. Even the older programs have more features than you'll ever need for making decals.
Thanks, yes, apart from being busy till Wednesday, I will be talking to ALPS again this week and probably making a purchase over the internet soon after that. I'll let the ALPS list know how it goes of course, and prices, services etc.
Yes, as I thought. I realized later that one can manually change the size in a word processor by typing into the space for font size... and that 1.5 point I cannot read anymore anyway, let alone see jagged edges :-)
Got it! I use linux, so I am unlikely to use Illustrator, but I understand some versions of Corel run under WINE, so I will investigate that route.
That's right, I forgot, youre a Linux man! I suppose that GIMP would work too but I perfer to use vector based drawing program rather than bitmap editors. There must be some vectror based graphic editors for Linux. Also there are Alps printer drivers available for Linux. They work with MD-5000. They can probably be tweaked to work with MD-5500 too! See
Yes, luckily there are plenty. Inkscape is quite popular, but I am happy to create output in native postscript also :-)
Thanks, I suspect that they can be. I'm on the gimp-print mailing list (for the gutenprint printer drivers of linux systems) so help should be available if needed.
As soon as my conference is over Thursday I will be ordering from ALPS.
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