- What is edible ink?
- What is edible ink made of, and is it safe?
- How do you refill edible ink cartridges?
- What is the Inkedibles printhead cleaning solution
and how is it used?
- What are frosting sheets and how do they work?
- How does edible ink printing work?
- What printers can be used with edible inkjet printing?
- Why choose the Inkedibles brand?
- What is the Inkedibles Photo Contest and how does
it work?
- What are the best printer settings to use for printing
with Inkedibles?
- Which printers are considered good for edible
cake printing?
1. What is edible ink?
Edible ink is essentially edible frosting (edible coloring) that is engineered
to be jetted through an inkjet printer in a way that allows digital images
to be printed onto edible paper, also known as frosting sheets. Edible ink
printing allows cake decorators to inexpensively be able to produce digital
images from customer photos or other designs in a way that can be applied
to a cake and look as though the photo or image has been printed directly
onto the cake. The way this works is that the cartridges of the printer are
filled with edible ink, and this edible ink gets jetted onto the edible paper
(frosting sheets) as they flow through the printer. The printer does not know
that it is using edible ink as opposed to regular ink, and it does not know
that it is being fed with edible paper (frosting sheets) as opposed to regular
paper. What comes out of the printer is an image that is fully edible - both
the sheet on which it is printed, and the ink which is used to generate the
image. The frosting sheet is then applied onto a cake that is layered with
frosting, and the frosting sheet absorbs into the cake frosting in a way that
leaves the image beautifully pasted onto the cake and amazes customers and
friends. Edible ink should be used in the manner described above, for food
decoration purposes only.
2. What is edible ink made of, and is it safe to
eat?
As long as the edible ink you use is being made by a trusted manufacturer,
is FDA compliant and passes food safety tests, it is safe to use as directed
- as a food coloring agent to be printed to edible paper using an inkjet printer.
Inkedibles ™ brand edible inks are manufactured under stringent food
safety and quality control conditions and are FDA compliant. Our edible inks
are a proprietary formulation of water, glycerin, ethanol, preservative and
FDA approved colorants, and are engineered to flow through inkjet printers
such as popular Canon and Epson printers sold through regular office supply
stores. They are manufactured using machinery that does not come into contact
with food allergens, and are made in accordance with the FDA Code of Federal
Regulations - 21CFR).
The nutritional information for Inkedibles ™ inks (according to 21CFR
101 of the FDA) based on 100grams (3.5 oz) of Inkedibles ™ edible ink
is listed here (% of daily volume based on a 2000 calories diet):
- Energy: 110 kcal / 6%
- Carbohydrates: 15grams / 1%
- Sodium: 260mg / 11%
- Proteins: 0
- Sugars: 0
- Dietary Fiber: 0
- Total Fat: 0
- Vitamin A: 0
- Vitamin C: 0
- Calcium: 0
- Iron: 0
3. How do you refill edible ink cartridges?
Edible ink cartridges are essentially "containers" that are made in the shape
and form of an inkjet cartridge that plugs right in to your inkjet printer.
Inkedibles ™ brand cartridges are refillable and come with auto-resetting
chips to ensure that your printer can continue to accept them, refill after
refill. The regular printer cartridges that your printer uses typically have
one-time chips, that sense the level of ink in the cartridge, and when the
cartridge empties - send a signal to the printer that the cartridge is empty
and needs to be replaced. More often than not, the printer will not accept
that cartridge again even if it is refilled, because it still "remembers"
the cartridge (via the cartridge chip) as empty. With brand cartridges this
is not an issue, because the chips we put on our cartridges are auto-resettable
which means that when the cartridge runs out of ink, the chips reset and allow
you to refill the same cartridge, and your printer will recognize it as full
again. It is recommended to refill the same cartridge more than 3 times, as
the wick (outlet port) of the cartridge can wear out over time.
Inkedibles cartridges have easy to fill refill ports. Simply remove the plug
from the refill port, and inject Inkedibles refill ink which is sold in refill
bottles.
(click to enlarge)
4. What is the Inkedibles printhead cleaning solution
and how is it used?
The Inkedibles printhead cleaning solution is a proprietary food safe formulation
that is used to clean your printer's printheads if they become clogged. Printheads
can clog due to non-use of a printer - leaving a printer idle, especially
when you have edible cartridges installed, can cause the water from the ink
droplets which accumulate at the heads to evaporate, leaving behind crystalline
(sugar) deposits which can clog the print heads. The way to avoid this problem,
is to ensure that you print at least 1-2 pages with your printer per week,
and if you are going to leave the printer out of use for a while, to ensure
that you at least power cycle it every other day (turning it off and then
on gets the ink flowing), or leave food grade printhead cleaning cartridegs
installed while the printer is out of use. If you do get a clog in your printer's
printheads, it will show up when you print as colors could come out dull,
or you will notice lines on the page or missing colors. To unclog the printheads,
you can either:
5. What are frosting sheets?
Frosting sheets are also known as edible paper or icing sheets. They are the
substrate that you print to with edible inks for cake decorating purposes.
Frosting sheets are backed with plastic so that they slide through your printer
in much the same way that normal paper does, and they get printed to with
edible ink. Then the plastic backing is removed, and the frosting sheet aka
icing sheet is applied to a layer of frosting on top of the cake. See below
for instructions on how to print to your frosting sheets and apply them to
your cake.
(click to enlarge)
Frosting Sheets are available from Inkedibles in different shapes
and sizes. The most common sheet frosting is the Inkedibles full sheet size
(8.5 inch x 11 inch, or letter size). Inkedibles also offers other fun precut
sizes as well, such as Precut 1.18 inch circles (48 circles per sheet), Precut
2.0 inch circles (15 circles per sheet), Precut 2.5 inch circles (12 circles
per sheet), Precut 3.0 inch circles (6 circles per sheet), Precut 8 inch circles
(1 circle per sheet) and Precut 2.5 inch x 3 inch rectangular cards (8 cards
per page). These fun precut frosting sheets are commonly used as cupcake icing
toppers, or for smaller / special size cake toppers. The precut frosting sheet
sizes are easy to use - simply download and print using the free Inkedibles
templates for each precut size (available in MS WORD).
The format size / backing for the Inkedibles frosting sheets
is as follows:
You can find the frosting sheet options and templates here:
Inkedibles Frosting
Sheets.
The frosting sheet templates are in Microsoft Word (MSWORD). Here are instructions
for how to use the templates in MS WORD in order to get your image/designs
to take the full shape of the precut size (circle, for example):
(click to enlarge)
6. How does edible ink printing work?
Think of printing a photo on your regular inkjet printer, then placing the
photo on a cake. That's how simple edible ink printing is and the process
is exactly the same. The only difference is that the ink is not regular ink,
it is edible ink (think of edible ink like colored, liquid frosting, that
is engineered to flow through your printer's printheads without causing any
disruptions to your printing setup), and the paper is also edible (the "paper"
is called a frosting sheet, which is a thin wafer of icing that flows through
your printer like paper would, and accepts the edible ink as it is printing
out). The final product (your digital image printed with edible ink onto your
frosting sheet) can be applied to a cake that has a layer of frosting on top
of it, and the frosting sheet adheres to the cake and looks like you have
printed directly to the cake! A great way to surprise your customers, friends
and family with beautiful and custom cakes printed with a regular inkjet printer!
CAUTION: DO NOT mix your edible ink printer or edible ink
cartridges with regular inks - you should dedicate an inkjet printer and edible
ink cartridges ONLY for edible ink printing so that you do not contaminate
the edible inks.
7. What printers work with edible inks?
The beauty of Inkedibles™ brand edible inks is that they are designed
to work on many regular inkjet printers by Canon and Epson. Inkedibles™
currently has 2 lines of edible inks:
8. Why choose the Inkedibles Brand?
Inkedibles is very proud of its brand and line of products and has spared
no costs to ensure that the inks we offer are of the highest quality inks
on the market for print quality, food safety, and printer compatability. We
hold our brand to the highest standard, and this is why we have been testing
and developing our line of products for over 2 years before releasing them
on the market. We believe we have the best quality product on the market,
at a competitive price, and we stand behind our product 100%. If you are in
the cake decorating business, or if you are thinking of getting into the cake
decorating business, you will not be dissapointed by trying our products and
we are sure that you will be a regular customer. Give Inkedibles ™ a
try and let us earn your repeat business.
9. What is the Inkedibles Photo Contest and how
does it work?
Inkedibles offers a monthly Photo Contest that is free to participate in with
no purchase necessary from Inkedibles.com. Participating in the Inkedibles
Photo Contest is simple:
- Upload a photo of your decorated cake or baked good through the Inkedibles
Photo Uploader
- Anyone can vote on your photo using the Facebook "like" button
- The photo with the most Facebook "likes" in the given month will win $100
worth of Inkedible supplies
- Note that you own full copyright over the image that you upload but we
are granted a license to display the image for the purpose of providing
our services. If you do not want your image displayed on Inkedibles anymore
you can request to have it removed at any time by contacting us.Click here
for the Terms of participation in the
Photo Contest.
10. What are the best printer settings to use for
Inkedibles printing?
The intensity/brightness of colors printed using edible inks on edible paper
will be different to regular printing (for example, using original printer
inks and plain paper) because of the obvious differences in the print medium
and inks (edible paper and edible inks have different qualities to regular
ink and regular paper). Intensity/brightness of prints can be adjusted to
suit your needs through your printer’s “printing preferences”
tab. Examples of printer preference settings (shown in the instruction links)
are for the Canon ip3600 (a popular printer used in edible printing), but
all printer settings look and function similarly and you should consult your
printer manual if your menu options differ. To get the closest match with
minimal changes/effort, change the “paper type” and “print
quality” as per Page1 of the Inkedibles
Printer Settings Instruction sheet (link below). If those settings do
not give you the level of color brightness/intensity that you want, then go
ahead and make changes to color/intensity settings by clicking on the Manual
radio button and then Set the color/intensity by following Page2 of the Inkedibles
Printer Settings Instruction sheet. View the instructions by clicking
on the links below:
