Backlit colour print vs white vinyl coloured print

[Mark Nihotte]

Hi Warren

Probably not – usually a single pass print looks washed out when lit…so if the signs are next to one another, you will have some compromise to make. I have a lightbox set up in the workshop to test prints before making the final print. It very much depends on the colours involved (ie pastels and lighter colours need less enhancing than darker/richer ones). We have an SP540 and I usually print off the colour chart pages for the colours involved in both 2x overprint and also once with return to origin..allow to dry and reprint again. This gets mes close to the shade of colour that closely resembles the unlit colour/s and retains a strong colour for when lit. Sometimes you get lucky and it all looks OK (better to have colours close when unlit because as long as other signage is unlit or some distance away no one will remeber/expect exact colours at night as long as they are closeish and look good). Good luck 😀

[Catalin Dretcanu]

During the day should be ok if you will be using both material glossy or matte. Usually the translucent is matte. You will need to play with the printing profile until you will get the same colors and this is because of the material properties. During the night when the box will be lit you shouldn’t care too much because you will see only one with lights. This problem is easy to deal with if you are printing directly on the acrylic face on a printer with white ink. Then you have a option to print for light boxes which will give you the effect you wanted. With the vinyl you will always have this problem with the colors.

[Warren Beard]

Thanks guys, at least I know it can be achieved to a decent quality, as long as it’s not way out it should be fine.

cheers

warren