Mimic Frosted Glass With Only Clear Vinyl

[Falcon187]

I understand that Frosted Vinyl exists.

Is there any way to mimic or get close to that effect with printing on clear vinyl? This is mainly for privacy.

 

[damonCA21]

Not really. Why would you not just used frosted vinyl?

 

[DL Signs]

What purpose would there be to not use frosted?

If they want something besides just plain ol' boring frosted, you can print to most of them, I do it all the time. I do it for medical facilities, banks, restaurants, doors, windows, glass partitions... It's a whole market in itself.
I've done color fades & shades, striping, images, logos, restrooms, scrolls, silhouettes, there are also several different frosted vinyl styles (etched, frosted, dusted, crystal, etc), you can even print/ cut it for specialty decals on glass. The possibilities of what you can do are endless to easily fit a customer's needs, without having to try to resort to replicating the frosted part of it.

 

[P Wagner]

White ink can offer amazing utility for window films, including for privacy applications, among other use cases. Attached pic shows two graduations of white ink: the top is 5-percent steps from 100-0 white, and the bottom is a smooth graduation of white ink 0-100 percent.

 

[White Haus]

I understand that Frosted Vinyl exists.

Is there any way to mimic or get close to that effect with printing on clear vinyl? This is mainly for privacy.

Care to elaborate?

Do you have white ink capabilities?

Is a design going to be incorporated or just one solid finish?

Why isn't frosted being considered?

 

[Vassago]

Easy enough to do.. Just print a white percentage.. Print a graduated test print and use the % that looks best.

But much better to use the correct vinyl to start with.

 

[A Signage]

Yes you can make frost by printing clear vinyl.
10% White and 20% black is pretty close to the standard frost color.
To those who asked why, the advantages are unlimited opacity and design customization, like fade outs, and it's easier to remove later on.
It's basically the same thing as the 3M fasara films that the architects love but at a lower price point.
Just make sure use an optically clear vinyl if it will fade out to clear.
Also be gentle installing, it can be easy to scratch ink if not laminated while squeegee ing.

 

[Kimberly Hiles]

What kind of printer are you working with? As others mentioned white ink can give you something along the same line, though it's not really a frost. Clear gives more of a true frosted look. But any UV printer, even those without white or clear ink, can give you a kind of "frosted" look because the inks are thicker than a latex or inkjet. Attached a few photos to help illustrate this - look at the just the blue backgrounds in the butterfly images. type C is UV inks - the background is just blue, no white or clear ink used (there is white ink used behind the other graphics here, ignore that part) - linked comparisons of typical frost vs printed clear & printed white examples -examples

 

[Goatshaver]

Yes, UV clear ink with matte finish printed with a UV machine can get you that effect.

 

[MarkSnelling]

just use some textured floor lam. Cheap and does the same thing.

 

[Jims209]

I understand that Frosted Vinyl exists.

Is there any way to mimic or get close to that effect with printing on clear vinyl? This is mainly for privacy.

 

[Jims209]

These images show (it's almost impossible to get good photos) white printed 50% on clear with the text and images knocked out to be clear. It worked well for privacy. Make sure they are aware of front lighting vs backlighting will make it look very different, not bad just different...

 

[MrDav3C]

Really liked this post as printing onto clear to create a frosted effect is something I've not came across before!

Unfortunately we don't print white, is something like this achievable but with a solvent printer using CMYK and basically doing the same thing but with a light grey?

 

[Kimberly Hiles]

Unfortunately we don't print white, is something like this achievable but with a solvent printer using CMYK and basically doing the same thing but with a light grey?

You could easily test it, but from the samples I've seen in the past EcoSol inks tend to be very thin & saturated but transparent, meaning they wont give you the same hazy effect that a thicker UV ink would. Think you would get a similar result to the latex photos attached earlier on in this thread.