My cards are smearing....
 

I need some help. I printed off some bridal shower invitations about 6 hours ago on Walmart Georgia Pacific white paper using an ink jet printer. As I am sitting here cutting them to size and adhering them to cardstock they are smearing! I can't believe it! Is there are setting in Word that I should be using when printing on cardstock? I am panicking because I am supposed to be doing my SIL wedding invites on Bazzill Cardstock and I cannot afford to have things smearing like this. And I really, really don't want to have to emboss 70 invitations, RSVP's, Directions, etc. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

I have never printed off an image off of the computer with my printer but I have printed off my son's wedding invitations on the GP from Walmarts. I let them sit and dry for about a week then (to be on the safe side) I sprayed them with a matt sealer from Kryon before I put them together.
Hopes this helps!

You may need to clean the printer head. Fuzzies will clog it and make it print funny.

There isn't a specific setting I have used when printing on cardstock from my computer. I have had problems with ink smearing before. Funny thing is, it was when I was working on my wedding invites! I had a couple different kinds of paper I was printing on. One worked great, no problems at all. The other...different story. No matter what I did, it still smeared. This particular paper was shimmery and would not absorb the ink.

My thoughts on this...I don't believe it is a setting issue with the computer and printer. I think it is more an issue of the paper being used not working(i.e. absorbing) with the ink from the printer.

My suggestion would be to try a different type of paper and see if that paper smears as well.

Hope you can get it to work for you.

Either it's not very good ink as some of the non manufacturer ones can blend more, or related to paper.

Either test and see if a lower quality print will do-even draft maybe or you can try gently heat sealing with a heat gun or just print off today and arrange them tomorrow. I see no need at all to use a sealant or wait forever though I am unfamiliar with the paper you mention. If it has a sheen at all like SU Whisper White you may need to do a heat set and maybe even a transparency print.

I am no teccie but if you go to PROPERTIES when you print you can choose different qualities of print-if you print on vellum you need to do trnparency as a lighter ink coating, you may need to have a play and see.

Do give it time, are you hot where you live as this makes things dry slower too.

Don't worry though-it'll be OK and you may need to play about but you'll be OK-good luck.

I printed the insides of my Christmas cards on the GP paper on my inkjet. I had issues too. I printed all 45 of them at the same time. The ink from the inside transfered to the outside of the sheet it was next to. I printed them twice and was so annoyed. My DH thought I should do one at a time, but I just don't have the room to lay them out separately to dry. What I did find out was that I could erase all the transfered ink with my chalk eraser.

I thought the problem might be because it was a rainy day when I did them, but now I guess that wasn't the case. It was the first time I ever had that problem.

I've noticed that one side of the GP paper seems to be smoother than the other. I did my printing on the less smooth side, but it didn't seem to make a difference.

Do you have (or can you get) a Perfect Printing Pouch? It does something mysterious to the paper that helps keep the ink from smearing, even on vellum. I bought mine online some time ago, but I've also seen them at Michael's and AC Moore. You rub it on the paper/cardstock before you load it into the printer, and it helps stabilize the ink. Good luck!

Carol

If you have a heat gun try heat setting the ink for a few secounds.

I'd contact the printer company...it's got to be a question they get all the time.

Check your printer settings my has a different one for cardstock than paper etc.

I think that has to do with the different thicknesses, so it doesn't jam, and not the amount of ink being laid down. I have to set my printer to "thick" whenever I'm printing labels (even though it has a "labels" setting) so that the sheets are pulled properly from the paper tray and the printed text lands where it should instead of shifted past the edges of the labels.

You need to let it dry longer. Make sure your printer is set for Cardstock paper type. In Word when you open up the print screen, go to properties then under paper type there should be a drop down menu to choose Cardstock. You can also set the print quality to better or best. I used GP cs to print out a lot of stuff for my wedding (booklets, etcs) And anytime I did any kind of printing on any kinda of paper, I always let it sit and dry a full 24 hours. Hope you get it to work!

If the cardstock is glossy, you have to tell the printer you are printing on a transparency. It will always default to regular paper. This is also how you print on vellum using the computer. Good Luck!