Online Labels Forum

This is a situation where you are going to have to test our product on few different printer settings to see what produces the best results for your design. We are happy to provide some sample sheets for testing if you would like to fill out our sample request form at the link below.

http://www.onlinelabels.com/samples

I would recommend that you try samples of the OL177WJ (matte waterproof inkjet) and the OL177WI (glossy waterproof inkjet) to see which of these products produces better results. Black ink is very dense so my concern with printing with this much ink saturation is whether the product will easily smudge / smear when it gets wet. When the top coating of our inkjet products gets too saturated with ink it is possible that some of the ink will not encapsulate (absorb) into the top coating. If this happens the labels will easily smudge / smear if they get wet.

Let us know how the testing goes. Thanks.

We have clear labels available. If you are still thinking about a clear overlay option, our CL product (gloss clear laser labels) may work well for that purpose. We also have customers who will use Krylon overcoat spray to help make labels more waterproof.

I did some quick research on whether the glossy setting lays down more or less ink. I didn't find a definitive answer on the topic. It sounds like it varies depending on the printer type, colors used in your design, and exact settings / options on the printer model.

I have asked our person who does R & D and product testing to do some further research on the topic. What type of printer are you using?

Some findings, printing with the Lexmark Pinnacle Pro 901.

NOTE: printing on un-sectioned "Weatherproof Matt for Inkjet", product OL177WJ (not sure if the first is a letter "O" or a zero")

NOTE: The items printed were labels, to be used for labeling controls on a small electronic device, about 2" square. each label contained jet black background with white text of varying height, with characters from about 200 mils in height, down to around 50 mills. There was also a small multicolored image, as part of the product logo.

1) "Glossy photo" setting, quality set to "automatic"
This took the longest of all my trials, and definitely took the most ink. I could see the ink still wet after printing. After fully dry, I could see some bleeding of the black into the white text areas. Definitely NOT a good choice with this much black background.

2) "Ink Jet Paper" setting, quality set to "Best"
This took much less time to print, and the ink was apparently dry as soon as it was done. There was a slight amount of what I'd call "striping", meaning you could see on close observation the horizontal passes made by the print head. These became less apparent over time, but could still be seen in the right light. No bleeding though. Overall, pretty good result, but not stellar.

3) "CD/DVD label" setting, quality "Best"
This took about the same time to print, maybe slightly longer. I'd say the black was a little more dense, though not as much as the glossy setting. Perhaps some slight bleeding into the smallest white text, but just barely. Surprisingly, this setting also produced slight "striping", when views with a light reflecting off the page at an angle. Overall, pretty good result, but the more apparent stripping made it slightly worse than the Ink Jet paper setting in my opinion. At least for this application.

4) "Matte photo paper" setting, quality "BEST".
Hands down this was the clear winner, and so the last combination I tried. The time to print was about medium compared to the other settings I tried, but print after print, this setting produced good consistent black background with no hint of "stripping" in any light, clear white text with no bleeding at all, very good definition on the graphics, and no apparent build up of ink after the print was done.

I intend to allow these to sit at least overnight before attempting any tests to see how moisture resistant they are.Hope the above is helpful to someone else with a similar printer.

Darn... I just requested a few samples of the clear INKJET type. The one I requested did say "weatherproof". I also requested a few samples of the glossy inkjet, weatherproof white. I can see all these products have no moisture problem already. That "worst" print i made where the ink was so thick it bled into the white text and took minutes to dry? Its already passed what I'd call a 'wet white glove" test. But I am a little concerned still about durability. Because its a control panel, with a several buttons, there is going to be constant handling. I'm sure the micro-porous surface will hold the ink without it transferring to people's fingers. But I can see that the nice surface is easily scratched (or "scuffed" might be a better word" from finger and finger nail contact. Maybe the gloss version will be less susceptible to this, or at least hide it better. If not, then I'll have to go for the second layer of clear.

You mentioned some clear sprays I could also try for surface protection. I'll hunt for one of those and try that too.

thanks again for all the help.!

Sample Request #134528

Thanks! I'll look for that krylon product too!

I'm glad to hear that the new samples arrived. The glossy weather proof inkjet material has a similar top coating to the weather proof matte inkjet product. Because of the material's gloss coating it does tend to get over saturated with ink a easier than the matte product. I have a feeling that the top coating is just getting over saturated with ink.

To use an analogy: The top coating on our inkjet products is like a paper towel. A paper towel will absorb a certain amount of water. Once the paper towel gets completely saturated it will no longer take on more water. In most cases, I find that reducing the ink being put onto the sheet will resolve the issue (draft mode). It sounds like the matte product is working better so I would probably just stick with it for now. The samples of the clear laser material should arrive by Monday or Tuesday.

Thanks.

It definitely sounds like an incompatibility with your ink and the top coating on the product.

I had one of our technical team members check out our sample bin for the OL177WI product to see if it was possibly incorrectly labeled material. He found that it was the correct material, but it is one of our older approved material specs. We have a new product that we switched to about 12 months ago that performs much better (looks exactly the same as the old spec). I am going to send you samples of this product for testing. We went to this new product spec about a year ago and we find that it performs much better across a wider range of inkjet printers. Nearly all of our inventory has now transitioned to this new product spec. I am not sure why those samples wouldn't have been updated to the new spec (probably a case of that item not being very popular).

I will get those samples out to you in tomorrow's mail. I am interested to see if the newer product performs better for you. Thanks!

Sounds good. Keep us posted.

I have gone ahead and put in a new request in for the OL177CL samples. For some reason, I couldn't find the original request. I may have inadvertently not completed the request when I entered it. I apologize for the issue. The samples should arrive shortly.

That is interesting feedback on the OL177WI material. It does sound like the top coating isn't accepting the ink for some reason. I'm glad to hear that the "extended" drying time seemed to work better.

I am not sure what exactly you mean in regards to laying out your artwork. We do offer printing services. You are welcome to submit your artwork to us for review using our support ticket system at the link below. Please make sure to indicate exactly what you require us to do with the artwork.

https://secure.onlinelabels.com/Support/SupportRequest.aspx