recommendation for book c.oth cover printing

[Geoff]

Hi All

I'm looking for advice on which wide format printer would be best for printing book covers.

We print high-end photo books for the consumer and professional photography markets, so quality is important. But more important is durability and longevity.

I had an HP 365 for a while and I liked many aspects of it, but unfortunately the ink rubs off. I put some test books on my shelf along side another book with a white cover, and after a few weeks, the white cover was stained with the ink from the latex print. I've tried some tests on the new 700 version, and while better, it still suffers the same issue, even with the overcoating turned up to max.

I haven't tried any other textile print technologies yet, so can you advise what else is out there that won't suffer this rubbing issue. Because these books will sit on shelves, often exposed to direct light, fade resistance is also a consideration.

Thanks in advance for any insights
Geoff

 

[balstestrat]

I don't think you can achieve this with any wide (large) format printer without some sort of protection on top of the ink.
UV maybe but I don't think you will like how it looks and feels. Definately not like professional book quality.
Sublimation would be the choice if you are doing textile (?) but you have to wash the textile after calendering it or you will have the same issue with leftover ink.

You are looking at completely wrong machine category is what I think.

 

[Geoff]

Thanks for you comments.
I didn't know that dye sub required washing - so that's definitely off the list.
What machine category do you think I should look at?
FWIW, we do books on demand, so we need to be able to run copies of 1.

 

[balstestrat]

I guess normally you wouldn't wash dye sub stuff but I have high doubts that if you have a fresh dye sub product with high ink load and you put it against white, it can have some ink transfer over. Especially if everything is not done properly.
Anyway I don't know what kind of textile you would even be using on books covers? Isn't it usually paper?
Someone else probably knows more...

 

[Geoff]

we're planning to use a cloth that resembles a woven linen, even though it is actually fabric. The most populat is called Iris.

 

[balstestrat]

Is it polyester?
Pretty sure stuff like that is mostly done with big presses to get good quality.

 

[Geoff]

There is a polyester version.
Undortunately big presses aren't an option as our average book run is 1.5 copies.

 

[Humble PM]

You could try something like canvastex - not going to get you that lovely debossed text, but not far off in appearance. UV protection, no ink migration and reasonably scuff resistant. I don't know whether it, or similar will work with other than aqueous inks.