Save 20 Percent on the New LexJet Print-N-Stick Fabric™

Jonathan Gomez, Point of Sale Creation & Distribution Manager for Chattanooga Coca-Cola Bottling Company, says LexJet Print-N-Stick Fabric has been an ideal inkjet material for point-of-sale printing; it's easy to print and install and reproduces those crucial corporate colors brilliantly.
Jonathan Gomez, Point of Sale Creation & Distribution Manager for Chattanooga Coca-Cola Bottling Company, says LexJet Print-N-Stick Fabric has been an ideal inkjet material for point-of-sale printing; it’s easy to print and install and reproduces those crucial corporate colors brilliantly.

From now until July 31 save 20 percent on your first order of LexJet’s new Print-N-Stick Fabric™ inkjet media for aqueous printers.

The new product combines the quality imaging surface of Water-Resistant Satin Cloth with an adhesive that makes it easy to apply, reposition, remove and re-use graphics without leaving any residue behind.

Print-N-Stick Fabric was designed to make it easy in production as well: it won’t rip, wrinkle or stretch during production or installation and can be cut into shapes without fraying or tearing.

The adhesive backed fabric provides rich, sharp images with a brilliant 110⁰ white point for printing all kinds of applications, including wall murals and cut-outs, decals, window graphics, signage and more.

For more information, and to take advantage of this offer before it ends on July 31, contact a LexJet customer specialist at 800-453-9538.

LexJet Introduces New Repositionable and Removable Adhesive-Backed Fabric

Print-N-Stick Fabric from LexJetLexJet’s new Print-N-Stick Fabric™ brings true photographic-quality printing to an inkjet fabric material that’s also backed with a repositionable and removable adhesive.

The new product is a combination of LexJet’s popular Water-Resistant Satin Cloth and a proprietary adhesive system that allows users to easily apply, reposition, remove and re-use graphics on virtually any flat surface without leaving any residue behind.

“Printing has been a cinch. I fed it right into the printer and didn’t have to make any changes to the suction to feed it in,” says Jack Ansley, owner of John H. Ansley Studio, Devon, Pa. “It has a very nice white surface, which produced rich blacks and great image quality for a project I recently printed applied to a concrete wall. I was amazed at how easy it is to apply and reposition without any bubbling.”

Print-N-Stick ApplicationAnsley adds that he’s applied one panel of the multi-panel project, pictured here, which is scheduled to be completed over the next couple of weeks.

The water-resistant fabric is also easy to finish; it won’t rip, wrinkle or stretch during production or installation and can be cut into any shape without fraying or tearing. Compatible with aqueous and latex inks, LexJet Print-N-Stick Fabric has a 110⁰ white point and allows higher ink saturation for deeper, sharper colors than most inkjet fabrics.

LexJet Print-N-Stick Fabric is ideal for wall murals and cut-out wall graphics, point-of-purchase displays, decals, window graphics, signs and more. It is available and shipping from LexJet’s Nationwide Distribution Network in 24″, 36″, 42″ and 60″ wide x 100′ roll lengths (LexJet also offers a 24″ x 20′ test roll).

For more information and to order, contact a LexJet customer specialist at 800-453-9538.

The Ties that Bind Analog and Digital Imaging at Colortek of Boston

Fine art and photographic reproduction

Reports about the demise of traditional film processes are greatly exaggerated, at least at Colortek of Boston, which has a healthy mix of digital and analog processes to serve a growing and dynamic client base.

Printing and reproducing fine art with inkjet printing
The image on the left was reproduced on Sunset Photo Metallic Paper. Colortek of Boston uses this paper for specific clients looking for the pearlescent pop that best represents their work.

Like most photo labs, Colortek of Boston transitioned to digital imaging and inkjet printing in the early ’90s. And like other labs, this watershed industry migration to digital and how each company handled the transition would determine long-term success or failure.

It was during this crucial time that Colortek of Boston decided to embrace the future without forgetting the past. The decision served the company well since local universities and their photography programs continued teaching the art of film for capture and processing.

“They still teach film and film processing at all the universities in the Boston area. Even MIT teaches a film class. It’s a unique art process that won’t go away, and it’s magical,” explains Jackie Anderson, Colortek of Boston’s owner. “Students need to go somewhere to process their film, so we offer student discounts and processing for 35mm, 2 1/4, 4×5 and 8×10 formats. We end up with good relationships with the students who then go out in the field and work at different places.”

Reproducing digital artwork on canvas
Colortek of Boston's owner, Jackie Anderson, designed this piece of digital art that combines photography with Photoshop printed on Sunset Select Matte Canvas.

The relationship between Colortek of Boston and the local universities acts as a feeder program of sorts. Former students often become loyal clients. Moreover, since Colortek is part of a shrinking group of companies with full processing capabilities, a dedicated legion of film enthusiasts from all over employ Colortek’s film processing services.

Even with this loyal band of film aficionados, inkjet printing reigns supreme at Colortek of Boston. Film processing usually ends up being inkjet-printed after it’s scanned and digitized. Plus, inkjet printing opened doors to other types of accounts, like museums, architects, lawyers and other more commercial accounts who need large reproductions of their work for displays and presentations.

Photo lab and fine art reproductionThis client base supplements the foundation of artists and photographers seeking consistent, quality output. “I’m beginning to see a lot more mixed media people because digital has become part of the process where I do a base print and they work on the print afterwards. For example, I have a client who gives me a file that I print it on Sunset Fibre Rag, then she draws on and manipulates the print and frames it,” says Anderson. “We have a loyal customer base; the people who are printing with me are coming back because they get what they see. We keep a close watch on our color calibration to make sure they’re doing what we see on-screen. A lot of people don’t have large printers at their home, business or studio, and they know they can get a quality print at the size they need.”

Colortek of Boston focuses almost exclusively on printing, preferring to farm out mounting and framing to local vendors. In order to satisfy an increasingly diverse client base Colortek of Boston relies on LexJet for a diversity of materials as well as expertise in finding and selecting inkjet materials for the project at hand.

Canvas photographic reproduction“I just started using Sunset Fibre Rag and that’s become my favorite paper because it feels like the old fibre prints and it provides more shadow detail than a cotton rag paper,” explains Anderson. “We started our inkjet printing with Sunset Photo eSatin, and that’s our staple paper, but now I can offer canvas, metallic paper, banner materials and even wall graphics with Photo Tex. Someone came to me recently looking for freestanding banners for their coffee shop so I called Rob Finkel at LexJet for some direction. He recommended LexJet Water-Resistant Satin Cloth and they’re very happy with the end product.”

Anderson adds that having LexJet’s resources available means never having to say no. “Whenever someone comes to us with a project, we figure out how to get it done. We’re trying to offer unique products to meet the needs of anyone who comes to us for images.”

HP Z6100 Firmware Update Provides Vacuum Control for Slipping Substrates

Firmware updates for HP large format inkjet printersSome media types like to slip slide away as you print. Fabrics are particularly guilty of this slipping offense. To help with those troublesome textiles, and any other media printed on the HP Designjet Z6100, HP has a firmware update that fixes this issue.

The update allows you to modify the amount of vacuum applied to various media, and for both thick and thin materials, you can adjust the loading vacuum level. So, for fabrics like LexJet Water-Resistant Satin Cloth and the Poly Select line of fabrics, the extra control makes it easier to keep them in line.

Click here for more instructions and to download Firmware Version 9.0.0.4.

And, as always, if you need any additional help with the firmware update or have any questions about LexJet’s fabric line, HP’s Designjet printers, and any other inkjet printable media, call a LexJet account specialist at 800-453-9538.

Imaging USA Recap: Backlit Gallery Wraps from Redipix

Backlit inkjet printed gallery wraps for display

Fresh from the Imaging USA show earlier this week in New Orleans our intrepid LexJet crew – Michael Clementi, Ryan King and Alex Ried – brought back inspiration and ideas that we’ll share over the next week or so.

Backlit gallery wraps for photography
Gallery Wrap Dazzle by Redpix is backlit with LEDs for a unique, eye-catching display that can be dimmed and brightened remotely.

The LexJet crew reported that Sunset Stretcher Kits were the most popular product they demonstrated at Imaging USA. The DIY kits make it easy to create your own museum and gallery wraps in minutes, and you can read more about them here.

Another interesting twist on the gallery wrap concept was presented by Redipix at Imaging USA. Redipix has created a backlit gallery wrap using LexJet Water-Resistant Satin Cloth that can be used for all types of display and lighting situations.

The box, built out of heavy-duty foam board, is backed with hundreds of LEDs placed in a pattern which maximizes light coverage behind the print. Moreover, the product – called Gallery Wrap Dazzle – comes with a remote dimmer so that the light can be controlled for various lighting situations.

Backlit printed gallery wraps for display
Here's what Gallery Wrap Dazzle looks like with the lights off.

“The LEDs can get brighter than you would normally want, except in sunlight, and it can be turned way down if need be. They’re particularly good where you don’t have good light, but they work anywhere. It’s amazing how the picture changes with the light and changes the contrast, so you can control the contrast,” says David Elmore, owner of Redipix. “We started using Water-Resistant Satin Cloth a couple of years ago and saw how people were using them in galleries and outdoors and other applications, and I noticed how great it looks in a window with the light behind it.”

The print can be easily removed and replaced with another one, so the Gallery Wrap Dazzle is re-usable, and the original print can be re-sold or re-purposed in whatever way you’d like, as a banner or hanging display, for instance.

“One of the photographers we met at the show wants to use it for weddings and display a picture of the bride and groom. It really glows so everyone can see it, leading to additional business from people who saw the display at the wedding,” says Elmore.

Printed shadow box for photography
This shadow box product from Redipix lights up the family photo on the inside.

At Imaging USA Redpix also introduced a new LED-lit shadow box and previewed a photo album that resides inside a gallery wrap, in addition to its primary foam board gallery wrap product that can be decorated with canvas or Water-Resistant Satin Cloth.

The shadow box has a hole in the middle of the main print, with another print recessed and lit with LEDs. Typically the main print is “word art” with a photo inside, the word art describing the picture inside. The photo album gallery wrap hangs on the wall so that the album can be prominently displayed and taken off the wall and opened for viewing.

For more information about Redipix, go to www.redipix.com.

Another Classic Success Story: Cali Color

Inkjet printing photos and fine artIn a previous post, we profiled Keith Fabry Inc., a traditional reprographics company that embraced digital and responded to market demand accordingly. In the same vein, but from a different traditional path, Cali Color in Sacramento also embraced digital technology and its market response was similarly successful.

Where Keith Fabry Inc. gravitated toward more commercial point of purchase and corporate work, Cali Color explored the niches that made the most sense based on its experience and expertise. The commonality between the two, beyond large-format digital inkjet printing, is a savvy sense of customer awareness. Both understood and continue to understand demand and what, exactly, their respective markets demand.

Cali Color always had a handle on where its markets were headed, which is why the evolution from chemical process to digital process was relatively smooth and seamless. In short, Cali Color listens to its customers, anticipating demand so that its supply in the demand-and-supply equation is a perfect match.

While all this may be common sense, particularly in hindsight, as many similar companies found out in those revolutionary emerging-digital ’90s, it was difficult to see the forest for the trees, to repeat a cliché. Cali Color not only saw the forest, but the surrounding countryside as well.

Reproducing artwork on canvas with inkjet printingAs Cali Color’s owner, Patrick O’Kane, explains: “In the early ’90s we got into digital because designers were making the transition from traditional mock-up to computer mock-up. They didn’t have any way to proof the images they were doing on the computer because there were no desktop digital printers at that time. We invested a lot of money in a Canon color copier and a Fiery controller, which allowed us to hook the computers to the color copier to output.”

Though Cali Color made the move, it wasn’t easy. Matching Pantone colors with a toner-based, four-color printer was quite challenging, to say the least, but Cali Color made it work. Cali Color then moved to wide format with the acquisition of a 36-inch Encad NovaJet Pro to better serve those same designers. Cali Color had not yet purposed the printer for photographic and fine art reproduction since everything was still transparency-based. “We thought it was a great thing, but looking back it had a dot pattern the size of golf ball dimples,” says O’Kane.

Once digital cameras arrived on the scene, the possibilities for digital printing arrived as well. Cali Color, as O’Kane puts it, took a step back and evaluated their business and the landscape around it, plunging into inkjet photo reproduction with an Epson 9600.

Laminating photo inkjet prints“We had the option to go inkjet or LightJet. The reason we decided to go inkjet was the initial cost of getting into the technology and because there were a lot of substrates available that we could offer our customers that we couldn’t with LightJet,” explains O’Kane. “We offered the entire giclee process and that took off quite quickly; a lot of people were looking for alternatives and the quality was much better than any offset processes available.”

O’Kane says that since that time, Cali Color shut down its negative development processes and stopped doing traditional photographic printing and E6, becoming fully digital about three years ago. Cali Color’s earlier assessment at the digital crossroads proved prophetic as the versatility of inkjet ensured a satisfied and secure market.

“With all the materials LexJet was coming out with and improving, it gave our customers many different options. Now we offer most everything LexJet has to offer in the Sunset line. We found that our volume increased, so we’ve built a very nice niche in the fine art market. We also do a fair amount of trade show graphics, which has gotten us into other substrates like LexJet’s Water-Resistant Satin Cloth and cold PSA laminates,” says O’Kane. “What we’ve found, even in this economy, is that our client base is actually getting wider, including other states and the Bay Area. We’ve built a reputation based on quality. We’ve combined our equipment and our darkroom techniques from years ago, transferring those techniques for use on the computer.”

O’Kane says Cali Color prints a lot of canvas, from limited editions and custom gallery wraps to large décor jobs. The keys are consistency, economy and value-added service, he says, to be competitive in this market.

Mounting inkjet prints on art boards“When it comes to a price point, LexJet’s Sunset canvases are great; they’re perfect for bidding on larger jobs, and I’m confident that the material we’re printing on will look great for years to come,” says O’Kane. “And, the Sunset Coatings are the best products I’ve seen in the way of protecting canvas prints… ever. I was using another coating, but it had to be diluted with distilled water and the dilution varied depending on the time of year I was doing it. I ruined more prints than I save. The Sunset product is ready to use out of the can and it doesn’t matter what humidity or temperature I’m dealing with. It’s an incredible product.”

O’Kane says his favorite print media for fine art and photography, aside from canvas, are Sunset Textured Fine Art and Sunset Hot Press Rag. “Our clients love those papers,” he says. “They’re consistent from batch to batch so I don’t have to worry about printing the same image six months down the road and having an issue with matching texture or anything else.”

For bin prints that people buy off the shelf from the artists and frame themselves, O’Kane uses LexJet’s Premium Archival Matte. “The fine art papers are generally reserved for limited editions, but if they’re selling prints that people can leaf through a bin to buy, Premium Archival Matte is a lot better paper for that since it’s less expensive. It also behaves a lot better than other matte papers I’ve used in that weight, and it’s archival.”

It’s all about options, and Cali Color makes sure its customers have plenty of them, whether it’s a large décor project or a laminated trade show graphic. It’s also about taking time to educate customers about those options, the thinking behind choosing materials and the printing process itself.

“We take time with our customers. The one thing digital has done it has made the photographer a darkroom technician. Some like it and some don’t. Some people have a handle on color, and some don’t. So, when we get a file from a customer, we take time to look at it. If we see deficiencies in that file – color, density, size, enough pixels to do the size they want – we’ll stop and talk to the customer to let them know our concerns,” says O’Kane. “I arrange a time with new customers to come in and we go through each individual file so we can show them if we make changes what the images will look like and how I feel it will be better. Back in the day when we were doing traditional processes, that’s what we did and made the best possible print we could by altering it – changing color density and burning and dodging.”

In other words, Cali Color is an open book to its clients. O’Kane shares information on how they calibrate their equipment, offer tutorials on color management and file preparation and gives talks to art and photography groups.

“I don’t think there are any huge trade secrets, so the more information I can give my customer, the more predictable the results are every time I get a file from them. It makes a difference, and it really doesn’t take that long,” says O’Kane.