I did have a video in that thread too actually, showing that it IS possible to print ereader cards even from a regular printer (let alone this expensive matchprint printer) that can be scanned.
I would be surprised if a TEST print meant to be used internally used different ink and a different printer [than a standard matchprinter setup] (and only the matchprint paper). However I agree we won’t really know until someone tries.
I believe the Xerox printer could only print up to 600 DPI (I say only, that’s still quite high). You can pick up ‘all in one’ home printer/scanner units which can both scan and print in 2,400 DPI these days. If anyone has one of those I’d be really interested to know what the quality is like when doing the following:
Grab a minty e-Reader card (or at least one which has no damage over the dot code);
Scan the card at 2,400 DPI;
Print the scan at 2,400 DPI on glossy paper (disabling any auto-scale the default printer settings may have);
Scan the printed scan at 2,400 DPI and compare the results.
That should give a like for like copy of the card matching the exact size and at 2,400 DPI should also pick up all of the dot code without any issue (I’d imagine 300 DPI would be enough for this as well, mind you).
Did you mean to say wouldn’t here? From my limited experience of working for a company which had a printing division several years ago, designers and print/press operators tend to stay separate. The designers will be up in an office somewhere and the print/press operators will be in a ground floor warehouse/factory unit possibly even in a completely different location.
TCA Gaming acquired these from a designer, not a print/press operator (although it wouldn’t surprise me if one of those did claim to have been a designer years later). I’d strongly imagine the copies printed by the designer would have been printed on a much smaller-scale and easy to use commercial printer (like the Xerox one mentioned here) rather than having the designs fed through to the same machine which mass-produces Pokémon cards.
Since topic also addresses tracking original cards, does anyone know who has the 2nd Mew from the initial leak? TCA has one they’re not willing to part with, and I’m still in search of the other one :3
This practice is actually pretty common in general even when not concerning printing companies. For example the factory I work at, the designing engineer will make prototypes on a 3d printer upstairs before sending the finalized prototype off for proper production. The concept of having test versions or prototypes be made on something that is NOT the main production line is pretty common. Using the main production line for a few test versions would halt regular production and is overall not an efficient way of doing things. Having a smaller type printer like the one mentioned for test versions makes perfect sense as it’s more convenient for the people in the office doing the actual designing and testing, and does not interupt actual production progresses that could be spewing out thousands of proper finalized merch rather than be used for a handful of test versions.
I would love for that to be true but I really don’t think it was tested enough to claim that it failed. Did you use the same hardware? Did you see my follow-up to your test? Did you see @casual 's comment above about accurately printing E-reader strips?
I have no idea how gold stamps are applied to cards but I think accurately altering an existing card in any way would be a lot more challenging than accurately printing a high DPI scan.
I don’t even own a printer at the moment as mine packed up just before I moved house and it’s not high on my list of things to buy (and likely won’t be for a while now that I have a thermal label printer instead), otherwise I’d definitely give it a try.
I’m not in any way saying it’ll be an easy thing to achieve, but I certainly don’t believe it’s impossible given that the ingredients are all now known.