bloomfieldliam said:
Maybe this is too simple for us intlectuals (major sp LOL) erm, take an empty cartridge to your nearest cartridge refillers, provide the with gold ink (Art Shop) and say fill it or get a kit and DIY.
Liam
There's a very high chance that the gold ink will dry before it even gets out of the nozzles, or the metallic particles will clog up. But it has to be worth a try
I find that ink cartridges can't be refilled anyway (especially for HP printers) because every alternate nozzle tends to stop working just before the ink actually runs out. I've never seen one colour run out before the others: it's always the nozzles that stop first.
There used to be an ALPS printer about ten years ago that printed by heat transfer off ribbons. You could get coloured ribbons in metallic blue, red, gold, or silver. And normal CMYK, of course. I think it took four colours at a time. I did a quick Google search for 'ALPS Gold Printer' and found this:
http://www.sonic.net/mnitepub/pccafe/reviews/alpsprinter/alpsprinter.html
also
http://cgi.ebay.com/Alps-MD-5000-Th...-NR_W0QQitemZ6892613649QQihZ013QQcmdZViewItem
seems it's a bit of a 'classic'! So possibly now outside your price range?
This is also one of very few printers that can also print in black & white. Can your printer do black AND white?
EDIT: I see it uses *seven* ribbons at once. I'm getting more and more excited by this printer: obviously a Lancia-style computer peripheral. Different, clever, expensive when new, high-quality, both a complete PITA to use and a joy to behold when it works
The last super-printer I had was my HP Paintjet XL300. Only average print quality (300dpi, like a Deskjet), but FOUR big cartridges at once, A3 support (once you've had a BIG printer you wonder how you managed without), PostScript (meaning the printer stood alone on the network like a laser), and most importantly - twin heaters! The platen and the output tray both had heaters that glowed orange. Now how many of your budget inkjets would have that? This thing was fast and expensive (thousands of dollars in 1991) - pure class - and it was FREE to me in 1997... I even sold it for $400 a year or two later. Cartridges were a rather nominal $20 each, obviously before the manufacturers figured out how to ream the mass market.
-Alex