Introducing: Even Richer Images with Next Generation Sunset Select Matte Canvas

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Printers and artists turn to Sunset Select Matte Canvas for projects as varied as unique, industrial-themed indoor art canvas wraps in Pennsylvania to weather-resistant fine-art photo banners in Idaho. The smooth texture, unsurpassed white point and crisp, rich photo production make it an easy choice for a multitude of projects and finishing treatments.

Versatile and durable, Sunset Select Matte Canvas was selected as one of 2010’s Hot Awards from Professional Photographer Magazine in the inkjet media category. And now, LexJet has released its next generation of the poly-cotton blend Sunset Select Matte Canvas.

The new Sunset Select Matte Canvas has a slight texture change and a higher Dmax, which means photos are even more detailed and vibrant. These improvements, however, haven’t altered the price, which remains the same for this 18 mil acid-free, pH neutral archival canvas.

Sunset Select Matte Canvas is available in standard roll widths from 17-inches to 60-inches in 40-foot rolls. It works with both dye and pigment inks and is compatible with current and legacy model printers from Canon, ColorSpan, Encad, Epson and Roland.

Call a LexJet print specialist at 800-453-9538 for more information and to try Sunset Select Matte Canvas for your next project.

A Printer Service Network Worth Checking Into

Large format printer service, repair and serviceAbout two years ago, graphics industry veterans Bob Flipse and Glenn Robb started a new printer service network called GrafxNetwork. Now in its third year, the network of independent service technicians has grown to more than 25 service locations across the U.S.

GrafxNetwork services mainly entry-level to mid-range solvent printers – including Roland, Mutoh, Mimaki and HP Designjet solvent – as well as Mimaki and CET UV-curable flatbeds, depending on the location and the technician.

Flipse describes GrafxNetwork as the hub of the network for independent service contractors. As he explains, “As opposed to a single independent technician who doesn’t have the benefit of our infrastructure and is running around doing support with a phone in one ear and having to do paperwork nights and weekends, we have a full staff here to do that for him so that he can concentrate on the customer.”

GrafxNetwork maintains an online work order system with detailed equipment histories so the technician knows exactly what happened during the last service call, alleviating any potential confusion during subsequent visits, says Flipse.

Flipse adds that GrafxNetwork carries full General and Professional (Error and Omissions) liability insurance for the protection of both the customer and the service technician, as well as a service warranty.

“If there’s a problem with the service, we bite the bullet and take care of it,” says Flipse, “And, we maintain an extensive parts inventory to ensure the right parts on-site during the first visit.”

For more information about GrafxNetwork and its locations, call 888-335-5914 or go to www.grafxnetwork.com

Killer Application Test for LexJet Infinium at SAS Systems

Inkjet printing on three dimensional irregular surfacesDon’t try this at home. Nevermind. Go ahead and try it, but don’t think you need to try it on a skull. Cale Frederick, graphic designer at SAS Systems in Muscle Shoals, Ala., was dying to test the new Infinium graphic material from LexJet and found something that would put the product through its paces.

Touted as the industry’s first transportable, conformable graphic, Frederick wanted to make sure it performed as advertised before trying it on a project. Looking around the shop, he spied a skull sitting on a shelf someone in the shop had been given as a gag gift.

The skull had all the elements he was looking for – lots of nooks and crannies and irregular surfaces – and Frederick went to work on it with an appropriate graphic.

How to apply a conformable graphic“They say it’s conformable, and the test was successful. We’re pleased with the way it turned out. I’ve got some more ideas but haven’t had a chance to test anything else. We have a customer we print templates for that uses them as guides to carve cedar logs. He’s bringing some rough cedar and we’ll experiment with that as well,” says Frederick. “I used a generic vinyl profile and it seemed to work fine; it prints especially well in the dark colors. We’re really excited about it for future projects.”

The Infinium was printed with the company’s Roland solvent printer and applied using a heat gun and foam-textured surface applicators from 3M; a hot laminator for flat substrates like leather or canvas will work as well. Frederick says it took about 30-45 minutes to wrap and some of the steps in the process are shown in the photos.

Before applying a conformable graphic“The material worked really well and sank right down into some of the really deep spots. I also found that using a printhead cleaning swab for the smaller areas worked really well,” explains Frederick. “I kept my heat gun set on about 970 degrees. That is the temp we usually use for installing textured wall wraps. The force of the air worked nicely for helping the material sink into some of the concave areas.”

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.

Download Free ICC Profiles and Learn How to Use Them

How to download and use ICC profilesNow available at LexJet’s ICC Profile page on its website are how-to videos on using ICC Profiles, in addition to free profile downloads for Canon, Encad, Epson, HP, Mimaki, Mutoh, Roland and Seiko printers, as well as custom profile targets.

ICC profiles are an integral part of color management in the printing process. When available, an ICC profile should always be used when printing to give you the best possible results and ensure the closest possible color match and rendering.

Current videos now on the ICC Profile Download page that walk you through the process include:

  • Download and Install ICC Profiles – PC
  • Download and Install ICC Profiles – Mac
  • Canon iPF Printers, Import Custom Media Types – PC
  • Canon iPF Printers, Import Custom Media Types – Mac
  • Soft Proofing in Photoshop

New videos and educational information will be added to the page. Any suggestions you have that would help you with the printing process are encouraged. If you have any questions, or need help with anything, contact a LexJet customer specialist at 800-453-9538.

Inkjet Quality over Quantity at The Blow Up Lab

The Blow Up Lab is not McDonald’s. After more than 30 years in business, owner Frank McGrath decided early on that he would not offer a pre-packaged commodity for the masses. Instead, he would provide a custom service that would meet the detailed needs of a demanding client base, one that varies from photographers and artists to corporate accounts.

Frank McGrath Blow Up LabWhile the foundation of The Blow Up Lab’s success is individual customer service, McGrath has also made smart moves with technology and finances. He was one of the first traditional photo labs in San Francisco to make the move to inkjet while taking a conservative, pay-as-you-go approach to it.

“We’re solid, we take care of business, we take care of our customers and we’re really good with our suppliers. We never ask for terms and pay our credit cards on time. It proves that you can be fairly small, compete with larger companies and have a profitable niche market,” explains McGrath. “We’re not cheap. Everyone is so price-conscious these days, and to be able to offer a quality product with really good service and turnaround times at a decent price, you have to do old-fashioned things, like stay late if the customer needs you to do that. It’s so corporate now that it’s hard to manufacture that concept into your company mission statement. You can have as many mission statements as you want, but if you have new employees every two months or so, for instance, it doesn’t matter.”

Canon Inkjet Printer at the Blow Up LabThese principles were instrumental in helping The Blow Up Lab come out of the recent recession with a small profit during a time when flat was the new up. “People are always looking for the cash cow; the client they can milk that won’t give them a lot of trouble. We have found that if you can listen to the picky clients, work with them every inch of the way, let them know they’re a valuable client and come through for them, you may not deal with them again, but six months later you get a reference, you’re networked and a whole new avenue opens up,” says McGrath.

Ultimately, McGrath found a service gap and exploited it. “There were a lot of photographers and artists who needed TLC and quality. We were able to create that niche, and now we’re in the black, all the bills are paid and we’re growing,” he says. “Our solution was to become more or less boutique oriented. We’re really good at working with super high quality and understand the concept, but also about speed and making deadlines. We went where most of our competitors couldn’t believe where we were going, which was working with artists and picky professionals.”

Chemical to Inkjet
The third leg of The Blow Up Lab’s stool – technology – began to come to fruition in the early ‘90s with the advent of viable inkjet printers for photo reproductions and graphics. McGrath worked closely with the two forerunners of the time – Encad and HP – and brought inkjet in-house. The switch was relatively sudden since McGrath was certain inkjet was the future. McGrath says the total transition took about ten years. Then around 2000 everything went inkjet at The Blowup Lab.

“Inkjet technology was in its infant stages in the ‘90s, but look how far it has come. The prints I’m doing now will last substantially longer than the traditional chemical based photo printing we were doing. In the old days, if your processor went down you were in a lot of trouble,” says McGrath. “Early on I decided to follow the money; manufacturers were pouring a lot of capital into the technology so I knew that if we stuck with inkjet it would be a winner. In hindsight it seems totally bloody obvious, but at the time it seemed like a radical departure and people were surprised we did it. We were able to lower our labor costs and the productivity per employee went up substantially. Now we were just putting something on a scanner, scanning it and putting it in Photoshop. We rode that wave in.”

McGrath has been working with Photoshop since its inception and has mastered the fine art of color management to serve those artists and picky professionals that make up the bulk of his clients. The key is in the interface between software and hardware; The Blow Up Lab creates custom profiles for almost every project, ensuring a color workflow that is both consistent and designed for the client.

The Blow Up Lab’s printer stable now includes a 64-inch wide Epson Stylus Pro 11880, a 72-inch Roland low-solvent, two Canon iPF8100s and an Epson 4900. McGrath estimates that the split between fine art and fine photo and commercial work is about 50/50.

“We do a lot of canvas and vinyl printing and our work often blends classic fine art reproduction with projects that are more institutional, such as some huge murals we printed for Pixar and museum projects” McGrath says.