Free Core Adapter for 2-inch Spindles Included with 3-inch Rolls

3-2 core

If you’ve purchased a 3-inch roll of media recently, you may have noticed the plastic end caps in the box. Don’t toss those out. Included in those end caps are easy-to-use core adapters that will allow you to run that 3-inch media on printers with 2-inch spindles.

More media is now sold on 3-inch cores to reduce the curl in the media. These value-added core adapters allow you to use media on a variety of printers, including latex. To use the adapter, just remove it from the end cap and pop it into the roll, as shown below.

Core adapter

The adapters can currently be found in the following LexJet products, which are sold in 3-inch rolls:

We also carry 3-inch spindles for a variety of printers, if you’re ready to make that switch, instead. Call a LexJet print specialist at 800-453-9538 to determine the right solution for you.

 

Try before You Buy: Pick up Your Free Fabric Swatch Book While Supplies Last

Selecting fabrics for inkjet printing applicationsInkjet printable fabric is an excellent alternative for a variety of graphics applications – including banner stands, table drapes, point of sale, trade show, backdrops and special events – but picking one can be tricky. Each has its own feel, texture and weight, so that’s why LexJet is offering its customers free swatch books of its popular line of Poly Select fabrics while supplies last.

The swatch book includes un-printed samples of the Poly Select Aqueous and SUV (compatible with solvent, low-solvent, UV-curable and latex) lines.  Each swatch is 3″ x 4.5″ and appears in the order shown on the inside front cover of the book…

LexJet Poly Select Light: Weighs in at 155g, is 7.5 mils thick and with its tight, barely discernable weave it’s ideal for reproducing colorful, finely detailed high-end images and designs.

LexJet Poly Select Medium: Combines the tight weave of the lighter fabric with additional durability and thickness (12 mils).

LexJet Poly Select Heavy: It’s 13 mils thick, 230g and lays nice and flat so it’s easy to work with in production. Plus, it’s glare resistant for consistent viewing in any lighting situation.

LexJet Poly Select Light SUV and LexJet Poly Select Heavy SUV: The solvent/low-solvent/UV-curable/latex compatible versions have similar qualities as the aqueous versions, but are more durable for outdoor displays.

Call a LexJet customer specialist at 800-453-9538 to pick one up before we run out, and here are a few posts that show how LexJet Poly Select fabrics are being used in the field:

Short Term Promotions with Punch at Colonial Beverage

Lighting up a Room with Inkjet Printed Fabric Window Shades

Fabric Fanatics: Creative and Colorful Fabric Applications by FBIS

Lighting up a Room with Inkjet Printed Fabric Window Shades

Making window shades out of inkjet printable fabricTired of the scenery outside your window? Just print a different scene. At least that’s what Tim Dussault, owner of The Color I in Anacortes, Wash., has been doing for almost ten years now. Dussault’s custom window shades have made appearances in residential and commercial windows over the years, giving customers rooms with a view.

Dussault started experimenting with the concept after printing wall hangings for a customer on LexJet Water-Resistant Satin Cloth. If inkjet-printable fabric can be used for tapestries, wall hangings and banners, why not window shades?

Dussault started experimenting and came up with his own window shade rollers, called Art Roller Shades. “My hobby has always been goofing around with products and changing them into something else; making them more than the sum of their parts,” he says.

Printing fabric window shades with an inkjet printerTypically, Dussault’s Art Roller Shades are one-off custom products, but his most recent project covered almost 40 rooms at a Palm Springs hospice center. The problem the hospice faced was, once again, the scenery. The rooms face air conditioning units and other uninteresting sights.

“I got an email from hospice organization in Palm Springs, I sent samples to them and they loved the shades. It was a nice job and it makes a dramatic impact on the room because you’re not used to seeing that much color coming through the window. It gets your attention and draws you in,” says Dussault.

Most of the windows in the hospice are 83 inches wide, so Dussault set these up with dual shades. There are other shorter, more vertical windows in the hospice that required only one shade.

Window coverings made with printed fabricDussault began printing the project on his Roland printer with 3P Universal Heavy FR fabric from LexJet, but ran out of material during the project.

“I talked to my customer specialist at LexJet, Justin Craft, and told him my dilemma. He had an alternative idea for me, and sent some information and samples of LexJet Poly Select Light. I’m very happy with the results. It cuts clean and handles well. I see a lot of opportunity for other design-oriented products based on that material in the Medium and Heavy versions as well,” says Dussault.

Dussault adds that the he used the Poly Select Light fabric for the last floor of the project; the windows on the other floors were decorated with 3P Universal Heavy fabric.

Fabric Fanatics: Creative and Colorful Fabric Applications by FBIS

Printing signs for an art festivalAt Fine Balance Imaging Studios (FBIS) in Langley, Wash., on picturesque Whidbey Island, the watchwords are quality and variety. The studio images everything from fine art and photography to commercial and special event graphics, using an amazing range of inkjet printable materials from LexJet to better serve its clientele.

An ongoing project for Fine Balance Imaging is the annual summer art festival in Langely called Choochokam, which is Hopi for “gathering of stars.” FBIS co-owner Joe Menth chairs the design committee and prints just about everything imaginable for the festival, from directionals and schedules to booth signage.

Printing fabric banners for an art festivalWith a long history experimenting with different materials, Menth employs his materials and color management knowledge and arsenal of LexJet media to create a colorful and informative venue for the thousands that swarm to the island for the festival.

A few years ago the look of the festival underwent a makeover with Menth heading up the design committee, employing a metal artist to create custom ironworks for the row markers at the event based on the signature design created by Chris Baldwin.

Menth chose to use LexJet Water-Resistant Satin Cloth for the banners attached to the ironwork, and says the material has held up to weather and abuse after years of being used and re-used. For replacement banners where needed, as well as crosswalk, booth and artist banners, Menth used LexJet’s new Poly Select Light fabric.

Printing wall hanging tapestries
Dan O'Halloran's fine art pieces, The Archer and The Kingfisher, printed by FBIS on LexJet Poly Select Light Fabric.

Other areas of the festival were decorated with Photo Tex for non-permanent, easy-to-apply-and-peel-off applications like schedules at the main event stage, the fronts and sides of shuttle buses and posters applied at the ferry terminal on huge posts to direct people to the free shuttles.

Fine Balance Imaging also used LexJet TOUGHcoat AquaVinyl PSA for the primary information booths (which Menth also designed) and some other non-adhesive applications on LexJet TOUGHcoat Water-Resistant Polypropylene, though these applications were replaced with Poly Select Light for this year’s festival for the look and feel of fabric, plus a cost savings over other media options.

“I’m impressed with the fine art quality I can get with the Poly Select fabric. You can see the details as crisp as just about anything else we print to. It’s also a nice, affordable material for large wall hangings when a client doesn’t want to invest in a more expensive material,” says Menth.

Printing tapestries with an inkjet printer
Close-up of the detail achieved on Dan O'Halloran's The Kingfisher with LexJet Poly Select Light and the Epson Stylus Pro 9900.

Just such an opportunity came up recently when local fine artist Dan O’Halloran wanted wall-sized hanging reproductions of his work. Menth printed The Archer and The Kingfisher for him on Poly Select Light on the studio’s Epson Stylus Pro 9900 at 44 inches wide by five feet tall. One of them sold almost immediately.

Menth says, “He was one of the first artists whose work we carried in our art gallery before we started the printing studio, and we’ve remained friends for many years. While he’s still working his way through his old offset lithography limited editions of all of his original pencil drawings, he is now starting to explore alternative processes with us, printing on fabrics and polyester cloth. We’ve done large-scale tapestry-style hangings for Dan and other fine artists on machine-washable cottons and silks, but the price point was simply too high for the perceived value the artwork could be priced for at retail. The Poly Select Light cloth has become an excellent alternative for a flowing fabric look without the associated costs of real cottons and silks we’ve printed on in the past.”

Printing fabric banners with an inkjet printerFBIS also hangs three fabric portraits along the side of the building outside the second story windows. The banner on the left, printed on Poly Select Light, is a reproduction of 19th Century Japanese artwork the studio prints. A whopping 50 percent of all retail sales of the prints from an ongoing exhibition started last September by FBIStudios, by the way, go to the Japanese Relief Fund for victims of the tsunami. 

The “Ukiyo-e: Pictures of the Floating World” exhibit of Japanese woodblock print reproductions hangs throughout the building inside, with prints on Moab Moenkopi Unryu Kozo (Mulberry) Paper with bamboo hanging rods, as well as the ever-popular Water Resistant Satin Cloth.

Large hangings of Hokusai and Hiroshige, as well as many other lesser-known 19th Century Japanese artists are represented, care of the public domain imagery available through the Library of Congress.  Much care has been taken to keep the original aesthetic of the work, with minor retouching done to clean up the images, but without the over-saturation and over-sharpening that appears on the gaudy reproductions of Japanese art found on most large-scale retail poster shops and websites.

The resulting images are available not only in the building where FBIS has their printing and photography/classroom studios, but also on their new website, GratitudeGallery.com, where they are adding many of their clients’ work at no commission; artists receive 100 percent of the retail sales minus the print cost.

The middle building banner image on Poly Select Light is a rainbow, representing the color magic FBIS works for its clientele. The third and latest banner is a photo of the island’s lavender fields, a picture-perfect scene printed on LexJet Poly Select Light that captures the printing expertise of the studio and the island’s charm. 

Inkjet printing fabric bannersFine Balance Imaging has been donating the printing of building banners for various community events since the day they moved into the historic Bayview Cash Store building, but always at a cost that prevented the banners from being changed out more than once every four to six months.

Previously, the banners were printed on Tyvek, Polypropylene, or Water Resistant Satin Cloth. With the introduction of the Poly Select Light cloth, however, all future banners will be run on the versatile and cost-effective material.

“The banners get a lot of attention and it’s pretty neat having something that big with all that color hanging from the building,” says FBIS co-owner Nancy McFarland. “We usually leave those out on the building for a month or two. They get a lot of weather and wind, so it’s a great durability test.”

Printing Japanese art with an inkjet printerFBIS prints all of its work on its three Epson printers, a 4800, 9800 and 9900. Menth says the printers, coupled with the ImagePrint RIP, ensure color consistency and accuracy on each job, and that’s what FBIS is all about.

“I love the printers, and we use ImagePrint 8.0, which is beautiful because we can download profiles for just about any printable material in the industry and for any lighting condition we could run across. It also allows us to run these ridiculously long banners,” adds Menth.