Thank you Debra! Here many photocake and photochocolate businesses are using already the CIS system with good savings. I just order my inks from Kopyk 
I was wondering if you can advice me if for the tranfers on black chocolate you use a thin white cocoa butter layer on the sheet. I saw that some chocolates are a mix of white (photo) and black, but some are 100% black, what method do you suggest? Best regards
I have used several different brands from the United States. I live in Canada. I've used Icing Images, PhotoFrost, and Kopykake. The best inks for color matching to the original canon inks is Kopykake. The cartridges they use are quite well made. I use the canon mg5320. Canon is always changing their printers so I look for the new models that have the same printhead as whatever model I have. I just bought a new printer last weekend because it (mg5320) was on sale and the price was cheaper than buying a new printhead! I have not purchased the continuous ink system but have done some research in the past for this type of technology. I would be very curious to know how the continuous ink system works for you.
Dear Debra, greetings from Colombia, I read carefully this post and your valuable hints. I was wondering if you can advice me any particular edible ink brand, I am planning to import in bulk since here inks are quite expensive.
Also which Canon model are you using, we dont have all the models but I will try my best and install it aContinuous ink system.
thanks in advance for any direction.
Thanks for all these dtails Debra. I was already changing the intensity of my prints but still had problems. I willtry the one from Home Chocolate Factory.
Sounds like they are the one made by Deco chocolate artist in England. The spray is too thin and then when you print on them the ink saturates through that thin covering on the sheet. If you press print, the dialog box pulls up. Go into "properties", go to "colour/intensity", click "maual", then go to "brightness" and choose the "light" (will be automatically on normal). That will help reduce the amount of ink being printed. I use these sheets when I have artwork that is very delicate. These transfer sheets work great when they work!! The best solution is to use the ones by "Cake Art Intl". There is an American distributor but I find them to expensive. I purchase from "Home Chocolate Factory" in England. Ask for the trade discount if you are a business. The best size to use is TS02. I find the TS01 has caused me grief in the past. The American distributor even told me the TS02 size is a better quality product.
I am using transfer sheets made with starch and sugar for chocolates, same as the one sold by Tomric. I frequently have this problem: The ink stays partially on the transfer sheet so I have to make new printshave to trow awaya lot of material.
Does anyone have experienced this problem and if you did, did you find a solution?
Thanks! ric
What a life saver you are....I've spent the last several days working on this, going crazy. The Edible Artist software did the trick. I had download the Chocolate Artist originally but couldn't print and the Deco software works with these saved files...Thank You, Thank You, Thank You..
I can't tell you how much I appreciated your advice, :))
Thanks Glenn. I checked with Tomric and they are no longer carrying the product. I am now in the process of downloading the InDesign program....Thanks for the help :)) Deb
It is worth it to buy the USB stick. Deco artist also has the cake software which is free. If you download the Edible Artist software, scroll way down in the template page and you will see all the template shapes. Just make sure it matches what you need.
Deb,
I bought my USB stick/key fob from Tomric in New York. Check to see if they any more. Alternatively you can make a template pattern in Adobe InDesign to match your molds.
Good luck!
Glenn
Hi
I'm looking for templates for my choc. molds, specifically the heart (DCRPDR9013) & the oval (11271). Other than making my own (last resort) I was hoping that someone might already have some templates that they would like to share, possibly?
I have looked into the Chocolate Artist Software, and apparently that has been discontinued according to Chocolate World/Deco UK (plus it was ridiculously priced). I was able to download the software but I need a USB stick to print, perhaps someone has one that they might like to sell?
Any help would be appreciated,
Thanks
Deb
Has anyone use gold metallic ink transfers on dark chocolate?
These can be used just like any other transfer sheets you would buy ie. PCB, Chef Rubber etc. You do need to use a white backing to make your image show. If not the image gets lost in the dark chocolate.
Can this program be used to make my own chocolate transfer sheets to be used on hard ganaches, or is it something that is strictly used with magnetic molds? If this program doesn't have that capability, is there any other program that can do that?
Hi Debra exactly the same ingredients, so must come from the same company these are made in Holland, loads better than the ones from Deco.There called Bobbon sheets on the box.
David, what are the ingredients listed for your chocosheets? I am wondering who Chocolate World is using for their supplier. The cake art sheets are: water, cornstarch, sugar, cocoa butter, citric acid, bamboo fibre, soya lecithin, vanilla flavour.
I agree Debra the deco sheets are not the quality you would excpect, being as i purchased a job lot package ( never again ) reading these posts encouraged me to try chocolate world, what a difference.
You cannot airbrush the chocolate-artist (Deco) sheets, but airbrushing the cake art sheets should work. David is right in that "just do what works" and progress as experience comes.
I have done thousands of customized bonbons and I am very disappointed with Deco artists chocosheets. They need to double the spray on the sheets because the ink always saturates the spray then dries and sticks to the sheets.
Thanks for the hints. I've tried air brushing white over the transfer sheets without success, so have found the white chocolate option to be the most effective.
Best,
Glenn
To be honestDebra once i master the art of the airbrush etc then i will go down the road of white chocolate and cocoa butter, it seems to work for you, just trial and error i suppose i just find the melts at the mo straight forwards no tempering required. Only been going since January so still a novice. If you do use the melts Glenn dont slake them down with cocoa butter, theres no need,put the melts in mould in lieu of the white choc and let it set takes around 5-7 mins, then pour the flavoured chocolate in, pop in the fridge for around 40 mins, i then pop them for 5 mins in freezer, the reason i do this is the melts do not shrink as much as chocolate in the fridge. then demould as normal
If you are making a high end product, then the candy melts compromise the product. Compound chocolate is fine if the product is run of the mill quality. I blend white chocolate with cocoa butter and just plain everyday light oxidizes the white chocolate and the creamy yellow goes white. I use to add white coloured cocoa butter and realized it was a waste of time.
That looks great! I'll have to try some of the melts. Right now I use white chocolate and blend a little bit of white cocoa butter to lighten the colour from yellowish that most white chocolate couverture is.
Hi Glenn i use super white candy melts from merckens, i tried the ones from wilton but did not find the picture was perfect plus did not taste as good. once i get my head around this site will upload some pics. This was one of my earlier efforts but as you can see the picture is so clear.
That's interesting, Dave, as I have been using it exclusively on white chocolate. Which candy melts are you using? I haven't tried them before.
Thank you!
Hi Deborah could you tell me what the white pcb powder colour is and where i can get it from, im from the uk so it might be called something different over here. Many thanks
Hi has anyone used candy melts for a clearer picture rather than use white chocolate, i use it quite often and itseems to decant from the deco molds easily, and gives me a brill pic.
Hi Jackie,
Could you please tell me where you order the sheets preprinted, how long time does it take and
is there a min order
Thanks
Marianne
I don't do anything special or different than when using the white cocoa butter for anything else. I warm in in the microwave in bursts until it's fluid enough to use with the airbrush. Never checked the temp, but it should be around 90 degrees. I have heard from some that they get it hotter than that because the air brush will "temper" it as it goes through sprayer. Has never worked for me that way. If it's too hot, I usually loose a lot of pieces. After the printed sheet has dried, I just spray over it in a even layer, and let it set until dry. Then mold as usual. I have had some chipping on corners, but haven't figured out what causes it. It's really random, and it hasn't happened much.
I use the Badger 260 sprayer on my compressor just FYI.
Probably not a lot of help, but when I first started playing around with this whole thing, I just jumped in and figured it out as I went.
Can you please explain in more details how you get the white color so nice
Thanks
Marianne
Thanks, Debra. I'll try your technique of applying a thin layer of white chocolate with cocoa butter &colour. I appreciate your help and insight! The troubleshooting seems to take a long time to get to a quality result. : ))
I should add that the software is still beta, as I was told by Tomric and no permanent version available...there aren't instructions, so you have to figure it out for yourself. Ask if you have any questions and I'll try to help out.
I tried airbrushing white cocoa butter directly onto the transfer sheet, so that I could apply it to dark chocolate, but the results have been flakey. Haven't mastered that yet - any ideas or suggestions?
Thanks Debra, I have the printer, I have the ink cartridges and I am ready to start experimenting with the Deco software. I will get back to Ran at Chocolate World and tell him the dilemma people are having with the flash stick. The PC/Mac transfer was very difficult, some instructions would have been nice.
Will post my results!!!
click the top image that says "NEW DESIGN"
Click the proper mold template you need. You will need to wait anywhere from 3-10 seconds for the template to open up. Be patient.
Click "PICTURES" on the left menu. On the Right side, the IMAGING MENU appears. Find your picture and click it. I usually save an image (jpeg,jpg, or png) to my desktop (i have also created a file called LOGO) because it is easy to find the image. Anyhow, click the picture you want.
Set up the image to the size you want. There is an ability to crop the picture if you want. Once you have sized the image the way you want it thenClick on left side "PRINT IMAGE". Make sure that you have the security stick plugged into the USB. Print. OR "PREVIEW " if you want to see how the image will look before printing.
Chocolate World finally got back to me, you are correct, cartridges are filled with ink and water.
So, has anyone filled their own cartridges or treated their own acetate sheets??
