Luminous Landscape Forum
Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Printing: Printers, Papers and Inks => Topic started by: neile on February 07, 2011, 03:44:18 pm
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I'm looking at printing a few laptop skins off on my inkjet and am wondering if people have recommendations for removable adhesive vinyl? I talked to Lexjet and they suggested Extreme AquaVinyl. Any other suggestions?
Neil
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Pardon my ignorance, but what, exactly, is a "Laptop Skin"?
Tom
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Check out http://www.decalgirl.com/ as one example of companies that do this.
Neil
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Thank you. My education was sadly limited. How could I have possibly missed that? ;)
Tom
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They're awesome, but I'm tired of buying them when I have printers that are prefectly capable of making them myself :)
Neil
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ItSupplies also carries removeable adhesive medias... I'd love to find a "glossy" removeable adhesive vinyl media for pigmented inkjet, but everything I've seen so far with a gloss finish is for solvent printers. The Photex adhesive cloth might also work for your application, and the adhesive is a lot more gentle and easier to remove than removeable adhesive vinyl.
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I use both of Lexjet's Extreme AquaVinyl and the Photo Tex removable fabric wall paper (PhotoTex.)
I've had the vinyl stuck to sheet metal and outside for months at a time and it's still removable, but I don't know if I'd want to use it on a laptop. The PhotoTex removes quite nicely, but with a lot of handling you may experience some edge peel. I don't when using it as wall paper, even after removing it several times, but again, on a laptop, it may wear differently. Give a choice between the two, I'd try the PhotoTex first.
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ItSupplies also carries removeable adhesive medias... I'd love to find a "glossy" removeable adhesive vinyl media for pigmented inkjet, but everything I've seen so far with a gloss finish is for solvent printers. The Photex adhesive cloth might also work for your application, and the adhesive is a lot more gentle and easier to remove than removeable adhesive vinyl.
Right. You can find a lot of matte vinyl out there, Epson, HP, Premier and so on.
SoP has a Sihl Vinyl (http://www.shadesofpaper.com/product_info.php?cPath=79&products_id=591) with a "Satin" surface.
But there are other more unknown brands, like Readinkje (http://www.readinkjet.com/main/default/ProductsDetail.aspx?id=AGWV5)t. with glossy surfaces.
/Sven
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I've thought about doing this too, do you guys have any sort of templates or are you wingin' it?
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I held back on this one but here goes. I have no experience with the Lexjet material and it sounds interesting.
In a previous life, I supplied Decalgirl.com with all their vinyl and laminate. In my experience, only cast vinyl printed on a solvent or eco-solvent printer, laminated with a thin cast laminate will do the job you are hoping to do. Think of it as a small vehicle wrap. I did extensive research with Decalgirl to achieve their goal, which was a skin that can be applied and - here's the key - removed up to three years later without leaving any adhesive AND without removing the paint that is on most devices. Decalgirl has prototypes of almost any device that comes out and test all before making templates for printing. BTW, Decalgirl is a privately held company run by the best husband/wife team I have ever run across. I can't say exactly which brand of material Decalgirl is using (NDA and all that...) but cast material is the key to success. In addition, most printed vinyl images will rub off pretty quickly if lamination is not added to the image. Especially on a cell, iPod or any device that is held in hand as a function of use. Unless you have a solvent printer, I'd just buy a skin. Beware: many skin vendors don't laminate their product or guarantee the image permanence.
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Ok, thanks Randy. I've ordered from DecalGirl several times in the past, and looks like this is one product I'll need to skip adding to my lineup :(
Neil