My latest addition - Radialva Groom

[Robert Darwent]

Alas Robert's scan suffers from a slight motion blur in one direction which makes rescuing the station names a bit of a challenge.

Yes I was aware of that John. However, it is not a 'motion blur' effect but rather the optics of the flat-bed scanner focussing on the surface of the dial glass instead of the legend details on the back. I tried scanning at various resolutions but could not eliminate the slight out-of-focus effect unfortunately.

The scanner I'm using at present is part of a combined Epson inkjet/scanner combi. Its still relatively new and its probably the first time I've scanned a dial glass with it and so become aware of the issue. My old stand-alone HP scanner certainly didn't cause such problems.

The embossing powder is intriguing, because it gets over the issue of white lettering, but what intrigues me is that I'd have thought that ink dries so rapidly from an ink jet printer that when you sprinkle the powder onto the freshly printed sheet, I'd have thought that most would simply not adhere to the lettering and would fall off.

If you look at reply #11 of the RMorg thread on the subject David, someone asks the same question;

Quote: "how one could manage to pour the powder on WET ink. When papers come out of my printer, they are almost 90% dry already"

Answer: The decal paper has a very shiny texture. The ink remains wet on it for a considerable amount of time. Although I move at a steady pace when adding the powder and heating the graphics I have never really felt that I had to rush or be in a particular hurry. The first time I made some embossed decals I had the same concern as you but soon learned that speed is not a requirement.

So apparently its not a problem, but I would have though the same as you that the ink would already be too dry upon exiting the printer.

However, I've noticed a potentially greater problem that may prevent John making a suitable transfer, that being the detail produced by this method is 'raised'.

Obviously if the transfer is not flat then you will not be able to apply it correctly to the back of a sheet of glass or acrylic. Mirror-imaging the transfer and mounting so the raised lettering is away from the glass might work, but I suspect not. I believe the underside of and detail will look quite different to the normal side you should be viewing.

Regards