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Posted By: davidcycleback

If it's a Xerox, it would be easy to identify as a fake. Xeroxes, photocopiers and
laser printers all use the same printing technology (electrographic printing, aka
Xerography). This process doesn't actually use ink, but a powdery toner that is fused,
or melted, to the paper. This probably helps explains the mentioned shiny, 'ink sitting
on top' appearance. If one has a good microscope this printing is easy to identify because
you can see the specks of toner powder.


The above is a microscopic pic of a laser printed letter. The tiny specks floating around the
edges of the letter are specks of toner fused to the paper. Looks like it needs a dusting. A
Xerox or photocopier would have the same appearance. In part because baseball cards old and
new use real liquid ink, not powdery pigment, no genuine baseball card will have this dusty
appearance. And, as mentioned before, Xerography wasn't invented until after 1930.

Anyone who owns a laser printer, as opposed to an inkjet, has likely noticed two things: the
toner cartridges are messy with dry colored powder. You often need a vacuum cleaner to clean up
after changing cartridges. The second is that the 8x11" prints come out of the printer warm, even hot.
That's because the printer fused, or melted with heat, the toner power onto the paper.

With almost all other printing, including lithographs and woodcuts and even inkjet printers, liquid
or at least wet ink is used. This explains the 'wet sheet' ghosts on the T206s, where sheets were put
on top of each other before the ink dried. It explains why the print comes out of an inkjet printer
wet and you have to wait a while before it's dried. And, as these use wet ink instead of dry dusty pigment
powder, they won't have the dusty appearance under a microscope.