Not getting color from waterslide decal

[Bandet4u]

For my first waterslide decal I put a red design on my blue enclosure and it came out black. Even though it looks ok I want color. I use an inkjet and I was wondering if this still happens on laserjet. Also any other advice on which colors to use for waterslides.

[tonyharker]

The trouble with inkjet inks is that they are transparent. Some colour laser toners are also.  They show best on a white background.

[bluebunny]

Yeah, this. ^^

I recently got a colour laser printer and thought my pedals would instantly become a riot of colour.  Not so.  This is one of my first ones:



The (clear) decal is colour, though you'd barely know it.  The red enclosure is simply too dark.  So you either need to use white decals on dark enclosures (1), or clear on light-coloured enclosures (2):

1:	2:

[EBK]

Edit: Ignore the following.  I'm not saying it right. 


Really, the trouble with printing, if you want to characterize it that way, is that it is a subtractive color process.  If you start with a white surface, you can subtract your way to just about any color, all the way to black by putting down various amounts of magenta, yellow, and cyan.  If you start with a red surface, however, you can never make it look less red (other than making it black). I've oversimplified this explanation, possibly messing up any point that I'm trying to make, so I will stop now. 

[stallik]

Actually, you are saying it right. It's just that it can be difficult to get your mind around it.
So I'll repeat.

As Eric states, the inks you are using are most likely transparent

With a clear decal, you can only make the underlying colour darker. If you want to make it lighter, you have to first put down white ink in order to 'reset' the whole process.

Not many printers include a white ink so you are forced to use a white material instead of clear. It is sometimes possible to print a background the same colour as the enclosure but not always and it's pretty difficult to get an exact match even when you can

So how do manufacturers appear to get round this? They use screen printing which uses opaque inks. These effectively allow you to print lighter colours over a darker base