Home Forums Sign Making Discussions General Sign Topics will md5 full print work on a light box???

  • will md5 full print work on a light box???

    Posted by Scott.Evans on 2 December 2008 at 09:57

    iam doing 3 light boxes for a Chinese take away,

    i was wondering if i cover the panels with print will the light still give through in the night ?

    i was looking at using md5 with laminate

    David Rogers replied 17 years ago 6 Members · 8 Replies
  • 8 Replies
  • Phill Fenton

    Member
    2 December 2008 at 10:03

    I would print onto clear vinyl. Providing you have white opal acrylic panels in the light boxes the colours will be fine.

    Obviously if the acrylic panels are clear, you cannot do this as you need a white background to show the printed colours.

  • Gary Birch

    Member
    2 December 2008 at 10:12

    Metamark do a backlit self adhesive vinyl for this. Prints pretty good too.

    Gary

  • Scott.Evans

    Member
    2 December 2008 at 11:53

    ok then

    yes the panels are white opal acrylic

    if i print on the md5 laminate do you think i should also laminate over it, and would it work?

  • Stuart Taylor

    Member
    2 December 2008 at 12:06
    quote Scott Evans_21:

    ok then

    yes the panels are white opal acrylic

    if i print on the md5 laminate do you think i should also laminate over it, and would it work?

    Printing on the laminate normally will work as long as it doesn’t have anti graffiti properties or other special surface properties (which I don’t think applies to MD5) – I would suggest laminating as well to help protect surface from scratching which looks really bad with backlit work.

    One other thing I would suggest you look at is your density of ink when lit (as quite often standard ink levels will wash out when backlit) If you have the option with your printer choose a backlit profile or choose "double strike or print" as an option where your printer would print 2 passes over the same area (this is different to 2 pass/4 pass etc) – If you have no option of backlit profiles or double strike then up your ink limit to the max to help stop the wash out

  • David Rogers

    Member
    2 December 2008 at 15:17

    Just further to Stuart’s point about ‘overprinting’ because it can looked ‘washed out’ when backlit. The reverse problem can also be true…it can look far too dense & dark when it’s NOT illuminated. Striking a happy medium normally involves a bit of tweaking prior to sending to your RIP to get a good compromise.

    Dave

    ps. Choose a nice dense opal & print on clear – the light diffusion should be better than clear acrylic with a backlit printed film.

  • Chris Windebank

    Member
    2 December 2008 at 17:12

    Hi Scott, are you using Versaworks? You can select max impact (on the latest version)and this covers well on laminate. I suggest you laminate over the laminate too

  • Scott.Evans

    Member
    2 December 2008 at 22:57

    iam printing it on roland vp54 and from versaworks.
    it has the option of max impact and i can select 1,2,or 3 pass

    the boards iam taking out all ready have vinyl on and i have to reuse them, iam thinking they could be a bit dirty and this could easily show with using clear? i supose it depends on how clean i can get them.

    have anyone tryed putting putting md5 straight on? if so how much dose it block the light from showing?

    also the print is 100% ink coverage (lots of yellow)
    board size 2.2 meters X3

  • David Rogers

    Member
    2 December 2008 at 23:18

    Why not print your job at 10% size…stick it on a window / clear bit of scrap acrylic and shine a light through it.

    …all your questions answered in one…

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