Are your edible prints looking dull and faded? Wondering how to get vibrant, high quality edible images and cake toppers? Then this blog contains all you need to know to get the best results when printing on icing sheets, wafer paper and chocolate transfer sheets…
Why Are My Edible Prints Dull, Faded or Low Quality?
If you're printing edible images for cakes, cupcakes, cocktails or chocolate, it is important to ensure the images are the best quality you can achieve so your finished products look professional and you have satisfied customers. Printing on edible paper with edible ink can be different to printing on regular paper with regular ink. Although the range of colours and colour intensities achievable by edible ink and papers is different to that of regular ink and paper, it is still possible to achieve high-quality, vibrant edible images as well as closely matching the desired colours of your on-screen designs.
There may also be another reason why your edible print quality is low, such as the cartridges not being optimally filled or a blockage may be present in the print head. If print quality has reduced, it is probably due to one of these reasons!
We've put together a comprehensive guide with our best recommendations to achieving the highest-quality prints with your edible printer and edible inks on various mediums. Please note that these are our tried and tested recommendations and you may still require some trial and error when printing your designs for the finish you desire!
Tips for Printing High Quality Edible Images
- Use quality edible inks and edible papers.
- Choose images with a high resolution for edible printing.
- Edit the image before printing.
- Download the printer driver to your device to give you more scope on the colours and adjust colours.
- Select optimal print settings.
- Trial different settings and media types.
- Keep you edible printer clean.
Use Quality Edible Inks and Edible Papers
The quality of edible inks and papers can have a huge impact on how well your edible images turn out. Cheaper, low-quality inks can have less intense colours and can also cause blockages in your print head, further reducing your print quality. Using high-quality edible ink from a reputable supplier like EPS ensures the inks you are putting into your edible printer are optimal for colour matching, and will not cause damage to your print head. EPS Edible Inks use food-grade ingredients to achieve vivid colours and are also the only UK-available inks that are double-filtered to reduce ink build up in your print head, meaning you can ensure optimal print quality and close colour matching.
The quality of edible paper also has an impact on the print quality. Some icing sheets can be too textured or too dry to achieve vivid and sharp edible images. If Wafer Paper is too thin, images can look faded and have less impact on your cake. EPS stock Wafer Paper in various thicknesses, including 0.3mm, 0.4mm and 0.6mm so you can choose the best thickness and image quality for your project.
You will also find variations in your edible prints depending on whether you are printing on icing sheets or wafer paper - if high quality prints are important then the best medium to use would be icing sheets as the quality and vibrancy of images achievable is much higher. Wafer paper will not produce prints as vibrant but is a great cost-effective alternative, and with the right settings, high quality prints can still be achieved.
Choose Images with a High Resolution For Edible Printing
Possibly the most important step of all is to ensure the original image you are trying to print is a high resolution image and not blurry or pixelated. This is particularly important if you are enlarging your image for printing for a larger cake topper etc. Always ensure you obtain logos and artwork from your customers in the correct size and format - just copying these from their website or email footers for example will result in a lower resolution image than required.
If you have a poor quality image on screen to being with - no amount of changing settings will result in a higher quality image once printed on edible paper so this is an imperative step!
Edit the Image Prior to Printing on Edible Paper
When it comes to printing (of any kind) what we see on screen can look different to what is printed. Images will never look as vibrant as on screen and there are variations with colours due to the different colour modes but there are ways to improve this. While there are ways to get a more accurate colour match on screen to on print by calibrating your monitor, we still recommend editing your images and experimenting with settings until you reach the desired finish.
There are several different image editing software packages available, some of our favourites being Canva (free and paid version with no editing experience required) or Adobe Lightroom due to it's user-friendliness and low cost options. Whichever software package you choose to use, there are a number of editing settings to play around with. Our recommendations for producing the best quality images are the following:
- Increase the contrast of the image.
- Increase both the saturation and vibrancy (the image should look brighter/more vibrant on screen than you wish it to look on paper, sometimes even too saturated to get the desired colours when printed)
- Increase the sharpening to add more detail.
- Depending on the image, you may also want to increase the brightness, but this can make the colours lighter so it is a case of trial and error.
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As you can see in the above images, the edited version is much brighter and more detailed (perhaps a little too much so for on screen) - but once printed on icing sheets, the second edible image was much higher quality than the unedited version. Adjusting the settings can take a little trial and error until you are happy with the outcome, you could print test prints on regular paper to avoid wasting your edible sheets (but please note the colours and detail may alter slightly when printed on icing sheets or wafer paper).
Download the Printer Driver
In order to access a full colour range for printing your edible images, it is important to download the correct, up-to-date Canon printer driver for your printer model. The link to the current drivers for our Canon PIXMA edible printers can be found here:
Once downloaded, the colours can be adjusted accordingly. See our blog post on adjusting the colours on your edible printer for how to do this.
Select Optimal Print Settings
Choosing the right print settings can have a huge impact on the colours and quality of your edible prints. While this can take some trial and error depending on the design you are printing and on what type of edible paper (icing sheets, wafer paper or chocolate transfers) we recommend trying the following settings:
Recommended Print Settings For Icing Sheets
- Media Type: depending on the image and thickness of the icing sheet, you can try using either ‘envelope’, ‘plain paper’ or ‘photo paper’ as the media type when using icing sheets.
- Print Quality: we recommend using ‘best’ as the print quality - this will feed the icing sheets through the printer more slowly, and use more ink, resulting in a better quality print. You may also wish to try ‘Normal’ or ‘Draft’ quality as sometimes this works better for certain images.
As all EPS Icing Sheets vary in thickness, softness and surface texture, the optimal settings can vary depending on what icing sheet formula you are using. If you need more specific advice on the best print settings for your EPS Icing Sheets, please email sales@edibleprintsupplies.co.uk for more assistance.
Recommended Print Settings For Wafer Paper/Card
- Media Type: for all types of Wafer Paper or Wafer Card we recommend setting the media type to ‘plain paper’ as using ‘photo paper’ can use too much ink causing bubbles or warping to the wafer paper.
- Print Quality: You may wish to experiment between ‘normal’ or ‘best’ print quality to get the desired print finish. Best quality will use more ink than normal or draft quality, so for a colour dense image like a photo, normal quality may work best on wafer paper or wafer card.
Recommended Print Settings For Wafer Paper/Card
- Media Type: for Sweet Artist Chocolate Transfer Sheets we recommend setting the media type to ‘photo paper’ as this ensures the image is printed as vibrant as possible (as this uses more ink), meaning when it is transferred onto chocolate the image quality is not lost. You can also use ‘plain paper’ and again we recommend trialling this until you get your desired finish.
- Print Quality: we also recommend using ‘Best’ print quality for Chocolate Transfer Sheets for the same reasons as above. Using ‘Normal’ or ‘Draft’ may result in a more faded print on the chocolate transfer sheet which will be less vibrant and sharp when transferred onto chocolate.
It's important to note that printing on ‘best’ quality will use a higher volume of ink per print and will also take considerably longer to print so if you have a high volume of prints to do, it may be worth trying ‘normal’ quality to speed up the process, preserve your edible ink and save money. We always recommend trying out your prints on normal paper first before wasting more expensive edible paper, and print one copy on your chosen edible paper to test again before printing in bulk.
Another thing to note is the colour mode you are printing your image in - while most colours can be replicated when printed with edible inks, if you are trying to match the colours more closely, for example if printing corporate cake toppers with a company logo, we recommend you print the logo in a CMYK format rather than the RGB format which is used for digital print - you should ask your clients to provide their artwork in this format if required. While the colours may look slightly different on screen, when printed this format should provide a better match.
Trial Different Settings and Media Types
As we've discussed above, edible printing is not an exact science and different types of designs and images and edible paper types may require different degrees of editing and varied print settings. Trial and error will be required, particularly when first starting out in edible printing!
Keep Your Edible Printer Clean and Well Maintained
In order to keep your edible print quality high you need to keep your edible printer clean. Following our Regular Cleaning & Maintenance Advice will reduce the chance of blockages in the print head which can reduce the quality of your edible images. If colours in your prints are missing, faded or have vertical lines, you may have a print head blockage. You can clear this following our guide on Unblocking the Print Head in Your Edible Printer. The easiest way to keep your edible printer clean and prints looking vibrant is by using our Edible Printer Cleaning Kit.
It is also important to keep your edible printer cartridges filled to prevent them from drying out. If one of your edible inks is low, this can make your edible prints look faded or the colours to look wrong. We recommend checking the in levels of your edible ink cartridges by eye before you start every print job, rather than relying on the ink reader. The cavity side of refillable edible ink cartridges should always be at least ¾ full, so remove the cartridges and top them up if the ink falls lower than this. You can read our full guide on How to Correctly Fill Your Edible Ink Cartridges for help on how to do this correctly.
If you have any other questions about using your edible printer, our knowledgable and friendly team are here to help! Just get in touch by emailing our team at sales@edibleprintsupplies.co.uk . We also have a number of other edible printing blog posts and plenty of hints and tips on our social media pages, you can find us on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and TikTok - follow us and tag us in your posts if these tips have helped with your edible printing!