printing on acrylic?

[andyc0114]

Hi Guy's, I have a canon pixma pro 9000 printer and want to try printing on acrylic or canvas but i don't know if this printer can and if so what type. I contacted the canon help desk but they were not any (help)! Thank's in anticipation.

[cosmicma]

printing on canvas isn't too much of an issue i have a s9000 that iv'e used for canvas
the canvas i used is this stuff
http://www.xtradefactory.com/default...1&IT=165&CT=18

the results are excellent but the tricky bit is getting the canvas to feed through the printer but once the printer gets a grip it's not so bad

example

[GeoffWessex]

If you mean canvas inkjet paper (a paper that has a canvas texture) then it's best to get the proper paper profile for it - essentially that's what controls the amount of ink used.

I get the impression you really do mean canvas.... in which case it's trial and error, I'm afraid.

[cosmicma]

the canvas in the link i posted is canvas not paper made to look like canvas it has a special coating enabeling it to be used with inkjet printers
setting the printer up to print to it is no big deal just set the printer as if it's printing to generic photo paper the results are photographic

now if you believe everything you read the best type of inks to use are pigment based inks rather than dye based
the printer the OP has is pigment based so no worries there my canon s9000 pro is dye based ( it's getting on a bit ) i can assure you that it prints to canvas fine
the type of ink used doesn't seem to be as big an issue as some would like you to believe

the problem isn't the finished result on the canvas it's getting the canvas to feed through the printer ( well it is on mine ) because of it's cloth like nature i tend to guide it with a piece of photo paper which works
then we have the issue of lengh#
width is 13 inches and as long as youy like in theory but the canvas tends to skew ever so slightly if you try to print say 24 inches or above which isnn't that noticable on say a portrait but ad a border and it can be seen

this is all from experience of a canon 9000 series printer
i don't know if canon have improved on the transport of the newer generations hopefully they have and the skewing problem might not happen
on smaller sized print this doesn't happen it might be down to the weight of the canvas when trying to put large pieces through causing a bit of drag

printing to canvas seems to be a little known area to the average joe not to mention it's just as cheap if not cheaper than printing to quality photo paper
at the end of the day it's pretty straight forward

[AndyStevens]

Hi Andy,

I've had a look at the specs on the Canon site - it says 'board support' but there's no mention of anything thicker than 1.2mm via the front feeder. Does your printer have a rear feeder slot? My HP does but it still can't handle anything very thick and acrylic tends to be 5/10/20mm so I'm guessing it's a no for acrylic. What you could try though, and this is what a lot of the labs do, is make a regular print and stick it to the back of an acrylic block. You'll need some kind of gel-type glue to get rid of any bubbles but might be worth explring...

[cosmicma]

iv'e never done anything with acrylic i imagine you would need a printer with a flat bed type feed so it can pass straight through so to speak
the s9000 does not have this facility but paper feed is from back to front in the usual vertical line up

another way i have seen acrylic used is to sandwich a photo between 2 sheets the ones i saw had some sort of back lighhting and looked quite impressive

[andyc0114]

I actually meant the paper type acrylic not the plastic. cheer's.

[cosmicma]

i'm not sure what you mean by paper type acrylic
the closest i can come up with is the same as andystevens where a photo print is stuck onto a piece of acrylic sheet / block
acrylic in a paper type form i have never heard of or find any reference to

please explain