Hello! I was wondering, is there a specialized printer for making edible images? Or do you use a regular one but swap for special paper and ink?

How much do these things normally cost (printer, paper, ink [if they are special])

Can you make your own ink (like regular food coloring) or do you have to buy it in boxes? Is the ink used in airbrushing cake/fondant special, or just watered down food coloring?

Where can i get that nice metalic looking edible paint that i see so often on those baking shows? Is it expensive?

I think you would want to use a different printer for your edible inks to avoid cross contamination, although I believe you can buy ink refills to suit most types of printers these days.

I'm in Australia, but I know you can get all the supplies you mentioned from our local cake shop. It might be easiest for you to buy from a retailer online depending on where you live

You definitely need a printer dedicated to edible images. These are mostly Canon printers. You can go to icingimages.com and see what printers they support. You can also order your icing sheets and edible ink there. Depending on what printer you buy, it will cost around $300 or more. Icing Images also has packages you can buy with everything you need for edible image printing. They have wonderful customer service.

I do not airbrush, so can't answer those questions, HTH