wheedal

No, actually I found that having a little bit of color actually helped release the paper better on the fine traces. I look for a light color background because most of my boards are 2 sided and it's difficult to align the pages when you can't make out the crosshairs against a dark background. Thin works great, haven't tried the magazine covers. What you need is a quality publication -- most catalogs are recycled paper and have a kind of grainy surface. You can tell by rubbing your thumb on a sample under water. The recycled paper will particalize differently than the better quality one. National geographic, TIME, 4 wheeler, geo world, sharper image catalog all work pretty well. Also, its best if the paper hasent been handled before use (no collecting these from dentist waiting rooms!).

Good quality magazine/catalog paper is all I use. I haven't used maxim datasheets before, but I believe it should work. You look for paper that doesn't have a lot of loose recycled paper pulp content. Also, the laminator really lends itself to consistant results --I had difficulty with a hand iron.

I did a webpage describing something like this a while back. Hope it might help someone. http://myweb.cableone.net/wheedal/pcb.htm