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Specifically, can I print one side of a sheet, mark it up with a standard Bic pen, and put it back in the printer to print the other side?
Mathieu K.
Posted 2016-03-19T18:24:35.270
Reputation: 247
Is ballpoint pen laser-printer safe?
Answers
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Paper re-inserted into a laser printer is more likely to cause jams. This gets worse the more the paper is handled, bent, crumpled at the edges, etc. It gets worse in high-humidity situations. So that's a certain reason not to do it. An uncertain reason : Laser printers rely on a very high-temperature fuser, which the pen ink wasn't designed to handle. It's likely that the pen ink will partially burn or evaporate, making a smear on your fuser, and possibly staining every printout after that. Source : Have worked in a toner refill factory.
Christopher Hostage
Posted 2016-03-19T18:24:35.270
Reputation: 4 751
2The ink itself won't harm anything, but it probably will indent the page and not fuse properly in that area, or could cause paper jams depending on where you are marking. – Jonno – 2016-03-19T18:27:16.787
1you get ball point on my drums, rollers and fuser roller, I am not going to let you use my printer again :-) I might let you use a fine point permenent marker after it dries, if I could determine your reasons for doing that was valid enough to begin with. – Psycogeek – 2016-03-20T04:26:28.943
@Psycogeek: Yeah, I guess I'll just reprint the recto, print the verso, and copy my annotations over by hand. – Mathieu K. – 2016-03-20T06:15:47.667