Looking for a good UV-curable printing service

[shadowblade]

Does anyone have any suggestions for a good UV printing company that can produce fine-art-quality prints on aluminium or Dibond panels and laminate them with a matte or high-gloss UV-curable coating?

I need to produce some prints for an outdoor exhibition/display and am after something that is seriously durable and can withstand rain, hail or shine in a marine environment, while having the resolution and colour gamut of a fine art print.

[howardm]

Give Ben Gasser at metalmouthprints.com a call and ask about their FMK product.

[shadowblade]

Give Ben Gasser at metalmouthprints.com a call and ask about their FMK product.

Not quite what I'm looking for - those are dye-sub prints, which, while physically durable, aren't as lightfast as UV prints. These are going to be displayed in a marine area which receives direct, intense sunlight at certain times of the day/year.

[Styx]

Does anyone have any suggestions for a good UV printing company that can produce fine-art-quality prints on aluminium or Dibond panels and laminate them with a matte or high-gloss UV-curable coating?

I need to produce some prints for an outdoor exhibition/display and am after something that is seriously durable and can withstand rain, hail or shine in a marine environment, while having the resolution and colour gamut of a fine art print.

What size do you want?

[shadowblade]

What size do you want?

As big as possible.

Up to 32x96" panoramas, or 40x60" single frames, would be ideal.

[shadowblade]

The plan is for a few large panoramas, as well as a larger number of smaller prints. People will be able to walk right up to them. So the print process needs to be capable of fine-art-quality photo prints similar to aqueous inkjet standards, not just low-resolution, limited-gamut billboards.

[stcstc31]

i think you wont fine many if any outdoor printers that will produce what i think your looking for


generally this type of prints has a lower colour gamut, not shadow detail etc



how long do the prints have to last. i have done outdoor stuff on dibond using my epsons, and laminated them, and they lasted fine for 2 or 3 years no probs

[shadowblade]

i think you wont fine many if any outdoor printers that will produce what i think your looking for


generally this type of prints has a lower colour gamut, not shadow detail etc



how long do the prints have to last. i have done outdoor stuff on dibond using my epsons, and laminated them, and they lasted fine for 2 or 3 years no probs

Ten years would be good, I think. I've seen some good results over the past year from UV-curable inks (I assume it's an 8-colour-plus-white process) and a UV-curable high-gloss laminate, but am not sure which print company will do a good job with photographic prints, since this process, although used more and more for artworks, has previously been used primarily for signs and commercial work.

[Ernst Dinkla]

Ten years would be good, I think. I've seen some good results over the past year from UV-curable inks (I assume it's an 8-colour-plus-white process) and a UV-curable high-gloss laminate, but am not sure which print company will do a good job with photographic prints, since this process, although used more and more for artworks, has previously been used primarily for signs and commercial work.

Ask some UV curable printer suppliers like Durst, FujiFilm, which company has the latest machine and on it the widest ink set installed and go there.  This usually goes better from top down than through customer experiences.

Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst

http://www.pigment-print.com/spectralplots/spectrumviz_1.htm
January 2016 update, 700+ inkjet media white spectral plots

[aaronchan]

http://laumont.com/printing/#tab-3

they just added this on their website
they are one of the most high end output studio in NYC

aaron

[shadowblade]

http://laumont.com/printing/#tab-3

they just added this on their website
they are one of the most high end output studio in NYC

aaron

Thanks.

They mentioned printing on paper there - any idea if they also print directly onto metal or Dibond, or apply a UV-curable high-gloss laminate?

Wish I could find one in Australia, rather than shipping massive, rigid prints halfway around the world.

I'm also looking at this one: http://hpihouston.com/

[Ernst Dinkla]

Thanks.

They mentioned printing on paper there - any idea if they also print directly onto metal or Dibond, or apply a UV-curable high-gloss laminate?

Wish I could find one in Australia, rather than shipping massive, rigid prints halfway around the world.

I'm also looking at this one: http://hpihouston.com/

http://www.photoelectronics.com.au/

Durst agent in Australia. Call them and ask where their widest gamut UV curable wide format printer is installed so you can get the work done. Win win situation for everyone involved.



Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst

http://www.pigment-print.com/spectralplots/spectrumviz_1.htm
January 2016 update, 700+ inkjet media white spectral plots

[shadowblade]

How's the output from the Dursts? There's only one Rho P10 printer in Australia, and I'm not sure it runs the orange, violet or green inks (in addition to CMYK).

[aaronchan]

How's the output from the Dursts? There's only one Rho P10 printer in Australia, and I'm not sure it runs the orange, violet or green inks (in addition to CMYK).

Send an email to swissQprint to see if there is any printer in use in your continent.
Otherwise, Colorsix from Hong Kong has a SwissQ UV printer.
But I'm not sure how many color are they using, but with their background, I assuming they are at least using 6 (CMYKLcLm) with it.

aaron

[Ernst Dinkla]

How's the output from the Dursts? There's only one Rho P10 printer in Australia, and I'm not sure it runs the orange, violet or green inks (in addition to CMYK).

Possibly 4 years ago but at that time very good compared to the other companies.

Then look for Agfa machines. Canon that has the Océ range of outdoor quality printers in their catalog. FujiFilm with the Onset, Acuity machine. There are more. The minimum droplet size is approx 10 picoliter for the best quality heads and the sign companies themselves can select their preferred inkset. The issue is that as a customer you never know whether the sign company went for 2-3x CMYK for speed or for more ink hues and smaller droplet heads. The company that sells the machines knows where the better machines are.

Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst

http://www.pigment-print.com/spectralplots/spectrumviz_1.htm
January 2016 update, 700+ inkjet media white spectral plots

[shadowblade]

Possibly 4 years ago but at that time very good compared to the other companies.

Then look for Agfa machines. Canon that has the Océ range of outdoor quality printers in their catalog. FujiFilm with the Onset, Acuity machine. There are more. The minimum droplet size is approx 10 picoliter for the best quality heads and the sign companies themselves can select their preferred inkset. The issue is that as a customer you never know whether the sign company went for 2-3x CMYK for speed or for more ink hues and smaller droplet heads. The company that sells the machines knows where the better machines are.

Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst

http://www.pigment-print.com/spectralplots/spectrumviz_1.htm
January 2016 update, 700+ inkjet media white spectral plots

Just waiting for a response from the operators of the Rho P10. Apparently the P10 running the additional colours has a colour gamut of 600k colours on any medium, which is similar to that of aqueous prints on many coated papers.

[shadowblade]

Looks like there's nothing in Australia geared towards art and photography - they're all running CMYK only, to make signs and for interior design work.

Might have to look at overseas solutions after all.

Anyone know a place that runs a Rho P10 with extra colours? The colour gamut appears to be as good as aqueous inkjet on matte paper (580k colour gamut), which is pretty impressive: http://www.fespa.com/news/blogs/digital-dots-durst-rho-p10-200.html

[shadowblade]

Possibly 4 years ago but at that time very good compared to the other companies.

Then look for Agfa machines. Canon that has the Océ range of outdoor quality printers in their catalog. FujiFilm with the Onset, Acuity machine. There are more. The minimum droplet size is approx 10 picoliter for the best quality heads and the sign companies themselves can select their preferred inkset. The issue is that as a customer you never know whether the sign company went for 2-3x CMYK for speed or for more ink hues and smaller droplet heads. The company that sells the machines knows where the better machines are.

Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst

http://www.pigment-print.com/spectralplots/spectrumviz_1.htm
January 2016 update, 700+ inkjet media white spectral plots

Tried contacting Durst USA directly - no reply.

Who do you use for your UV prints?

[Ernst Dinkla]

Tried contacting Durst USA directly - no reply.

Who do you use for your UV prints?

My outdoor print quality observations were based on Drupa/Fespa/Photokina visits, little else. I show customers the image quality of my HP Zs here. Any customer that needs a shop like that for outdoor work is referred to bigger sign shops nearby, always some addresses. Instruct them to ask for wider gamuts. I avoid being the middle man due to warranty issues and prefer to let them taste the differences in image quality and color gamut. May not be the best commercial approach for fast/more money but lets me sleep well. The advice I gave you would be my approach if I needed wide gamut outdoor quality myself but that has not happened yet. I start to wonder whether N-color UV curing printers are sold only in Europe and maybe not widely even here. I understand you are the middle man but wonder about the fast money now. There are sign printer forums, no suitable reply there either?

Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst

http://www.pigment-print.com/spectralplots/spectrumviz_1.htm
January 2016 update, 700+ inkjet media white spectral plots

[Richard.Wills]

There are at least a couple of labs in London (literally the other side of the world) doing this for artists, as well as several in mainland Europe, which suggests it is becoming less uncommon. Scott Martin had a video of a grand format flatbed he'd worked on, on his site, and he seems to colour-manage internationally - he might have some pointers for a provider in your neck of the woods...