Types of Large Format Printing Equipment

There are various types of printing equipments used in the industry of large format printing industry today. Here are a few of the more famous large format printers and an insight into the features of each one of them:

Lambda Digital Photo Printer

The Lambda produces the highest quality graphic print. It is the most advanced digital printing system available. It prints continuous-tone true photographic material with the very best detail and color. When people say “near photographic,” this is what they are trying to replicate.

Because it’s digital, Lambda is capable of printing deeper blacks and brighter whites than traditional photo prints. For sharp, quality graphics – especially for images with skin tones or food – Lambda is your best large format printing choice.

Lambda prints on 7mil roll stock, paper, flex, or trans, up to 50” wide at any length. Paper is the same material you get from a drugstore when you get your snapshots printed. Flex is the same photo emulsion but on a polyester base instead of paper. The significance is paper tears and can delaminate, polyester doesn’t. Paper would be good for short runs of posters that go up once and stay there. Flex is good for images that you put up, taken down, roll up and ship, over and over. Trans has a similar poly base, but it is translucent to pass light and the emulsion creates twice the dye densities so that when backlit, the image will have the saturation it needs.

Jeti UV Flatbed Printer

The Jeti UV is the latest addition to the ever-increasing imaging and printing arsenal. You’ll love the great graphic value it can print. It is called bFlat printing because instead of printing to roll stock and laminating to boards, bFlat means you print directly on the board so it costs a lot less. Also, since the inks are durable outdoors, they don’t require face lamination, another cost savings. Lastly, it can print on just about any flat surface up to 2” thick.

EcoSol Indoor-Outdoor Vinyl Printer

Choose the Roland because the EcoSol Max ink set has the best color gamut of all the plotters that have been tested. Furthermore, its ink formulation was the best choice on the market to support environment-friendly printing. That means maximum color saturation and “closer to Pantone” when you need it and yet still capable of subtle tone variations in flesh tones and high key areas. EcoSol is at its best printing directly to vinyl.

GrandFormat Solvent Printing

The bigger the image the better this technology becomes. What may not have been adequate resolution and color saturation in closer viewing circumstances becomes quite reasonable as the square area of your image increases. That’s why Benchmark Imaging & Display offers both the EcoSol and Solvent printing to span the range. Solvent-based inks on vinyl is the least expensive and most durable combination available for super sized indoor or outdoor banners and billboards. Vinyl has negative environmental impacts. New products are becoming available that breakdown in landfills, however breakdown and decompose are two different definitions. Fabrics including mesh are an alternative but the synthetics have some of the same environmental drawbacks. As always, it isn’t enough just to buy printing. You’ll need finishing services to complete the project.