Decal Paper Advice

I’ve been working on a little Morris Minor ice cream van on and off for the past year or so. The final thing it needed was some sign writing.

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I have a vinyl cutter but wanted to do some smaller more complex designs so I thought I would give some home made water slide decals a go.

I have an Epson Stylus ink jet printer and am using MDP clear decal paper.

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Once my designs were printed I went over the paper with three light coats of paper craft varnish. The varnish seals the ink so when the decal is placed in water to remove it from the backing paper the ink isn’t lifted from the decal itself.

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However the decals still came out transparent. The more solid colours such as reds of the text and blacks are fine but the lighter colours such as the pink and yellow on the ice cream cone came out really transparent.

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Does anyone know of any remedy for this? Would using a laser jet printer rather than an ink jet printer make any difference? Help please!

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