Bright White Paper Co.'s
FAQ's and Tips about PosterPrinters ™ &
 Poster Printer Paper

1. How do the Poster Printers work?  The Poster Printers are direct thermal printers and depending on the model you buy, work two ways.  As direct scanning unit, simply place an 8 1/2 X 11 piece of paper in the top scanning unit and the image is automatically enlarged to the paper roll below.  Secondly, you can work directly from a computer if you incorporate the ProLynx® unit with it.   The ProLynx®  is an electronic interface that accepts the computers print information and transfers it to the Poster Printer.   Although the quality of the output is good scanning, the best quality images are printed direct from a computer.  

2.  The Standard Poster Printer paper starts out white.  How does the color get onto the paper?  The Standard Poster Printer paper is a direct thermal paper.  The color is actually chemically placed on the paper.  When you scan an image through the scanning unit, that information is transferred to the heated print heads.  The heated print  reacts with the chemicals on the paper drawing the color up.  Hence, using black on white paper will leave a black image.  Using Blue on White  paper will leave a blue image and so on.

3.  Isn't there another type of paper that can be used?  Yes.  Varitronics ® designed their printers to work with both the Standard direct thermal paper and Transfer Plus. Standard paper's color is drawn up as the heated print heads react with the chemicals on the paper.  Standard paper can be cold laminated but not heat laminated.  Transfer Plus paper works completely different.  Transfer Plus paper has an ink film attached to the paper similar to carbon paper.  As the heated print heads go over the film, they melt the ink onto the paper which instead of reacting as in the case of Standard paper, works to receive the ink.  When your poster is completed, simply peal the film from the paper and your left with the transferred image.  

4.  If you are laminating your banner you can install metal grommets into the laminate for use outdoors. Use a heavy laminate, generally 5 mil or more thick. Attach hang tabs over the laminate wherever you plan to install the grommets. Press the grommet through the tab and laminate. Never install grommets through the paper, even if the paper is laminated.  Water can easily seep through the grommet and ruin the paper.  

5. If you are scanning your designs manually through the scanner unit, strong black and white images will reproduce best. Grays tend to print muddy. If you're using a lot of grays and are having trouble reproducing your designs, try switching your machine to photo mode and running them through the scanner that way.

(Our Brite Tip sheet on inserting photographs explains how to reproduce the best quality images.  (Request a Brite Tip sheet.)

6. Even though most publishing programs will allow you to design banners, they only print single 8 1/2" X 11" sheets or tiles. These tiles then either have to be spliced together to create the whole and run through together. (Refer to our Banner Making section in our  Newsletter on how to create banners.) or some programs will allow you to print turning the tile portion off.

7. If you are manually scanning pristine "clean" documents and are finding your enlargements printing lines or dots that are not there, its probably time to clean your print heads and / or platen glass in your scanner unit. This happens more often when documents which have had "White Out" added to them are scanned through before they have had time to dry.   Refer to your owners manual for specific cleaning instructions.

8. Although the Poster Printer prints in one color, feel free to add colors. How?  Try water based colored markers, crayons or cut and paste other poster designs (pieces) printed on different colored Poster Printer paper.  Consider enlarging photos on a color machine and pasting those on your posters and banners.