Vellum Paper - Translucent Sheets

The romantic appeal of translucence is what makes vellum paper so irresistible to creative artists. Thousands of years ago, Vellum was originally prepared from un-tanned calfskin. A modern imitation made of wood pulp or cotton fiber is now available as a paper product, and is called by many names such as vegetable vellum, imitation vellum, Japanese vellum or vellum paper. It is available in a variety of pastel and bright colors, pin stripes, and metallic and speckled designs. Semi translucent in appearance, it is also available with embossed designs.

Vellum has a special place among decorative and attractive paper types. Its translucence and soft texture offer opportunities for presenting a variety of artistic ideas that can be aesthetic and appealing.

But the very factors that make it so beautiful and irresistible impose limitations on its use in computerized printing, using inkjet or laser printers. When one considers how inkjet printers function, one finds that the paper used in the printer chiefly determines the quality of the output. Special paper produces good results. Normal paper does work, but the results are rather drab, compared to the sharp and crisp results obtained when using paper specially made for inkjets. The two factors responsible for this difference in image quality are, the reflection of light and absorption of ink. Specially made inkjet paper has an extremely smooth surface and reflects more light back in the same direction. This makes the paper appear brighter; consequently, any image on the paper appears bright and sharp. On the other hand, the relatively rough texture of ordinary quality printer paper scatters light in different directions, and so the paper and the image on it appear rather dull. This can be better understood by comparing the pictures printed in a magazine with high quality paper and a newspaper.

The other factor is absorption of the ink. In inkjet printers, ink is sprayed in fine droplets on the surface of the paper. For good results, the ink should remain on the paper in a tight round spot without being absorbed much by the paper. Special inkjet paper is coated with a wax-like substance that keeps the ink on the surface to give exceptionally good results. With ordinary paper, and much more with vellum, due to the relatively rough surface, the ink gets absorbed into the paper and 'feathers', which is to say that it spreads unevenly to a larger area than is required, with the result that the image and text appear to be slightly blurred and fuzzy.

However, these days, there are many types of vellum that are specially made to be compatible with inkjet or laser printers. The best way to confirm compatibility would be to check with the company from which the vellum is purchased, or else print a sheet to see the results.

Since vellum paper is made from one hundred percent cotton fiber, there is no question of melting in the laser printer. However, due to the heat of the hot fusing rollers in the laser printer, the vellum sheet may undergo some shrinking. Therefore, for good results, it is advisable to first run it as a blank sheet in the printer to allow it to preshrink, and then print whatever is desired using the pre-shrunk sheet.

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