DSF

Appreciate this is a bit subjective but...

How well do the colour change mugs hide the underlying (well overlying i suppose) image when cold?
For it to be effective I would have expected 100% opacity but these images from the Xpress website clearly show the image being visible when the mug is fully 'black'...

http://www.xpres.co.uk/consumables/subl ... e_mugs.php

Most people seem to use WOW Mugs - is that a specific brand, and do they have better hiding qualities?

or am i just hoping for too much?

I've never printed any myself but have seen plenty and all the ones I've seen DO show the image even when black/cold. It's only just visible....but is visible.

It largely depends on the image and the light source. If you shine a light directly at the black mug, you see that it's not really black and it certainly isn't black enough to hide 100% of the image. The black of the inkset and the black of the coating are different.

I have an info page on my website to help explain how the mugs work, see: http://www.mugsandgifts.co.uk/wowmugs-info

Also, it's worth bearing in mind that if you use the mug a lot and wash it frequently, the colour of the coating fades. Eventually it doesn't do much colour changing at all. But if you treat it delicately, it's a fun and novel effect.

Thanks for the feedback - i guessed the image must be at least partially visible since the inks are laid on top of the black surface.

On the Xpress image the white areas show up more dominantly than the darker areas, however this must be an 'illusion' as white is an absence of ink - so the white areas must show the actual 'black' of the mug and are visible because of the ink surrounding them...

Whatever - i'll put them on my shopping list.. gotta try them out!!

image is partly visible, I actually think it helps, otherwise, it just looks like a dull grey black mug!