Reflective vinyl printing.

[Sero]

Hello Everyone.

When we print on reflective vinyl, the only colors that we're able to get are red, black, and white.
This is causing us to lose some business since some customers want more color options.
Any tips or ideas on how to increase the color spectrum of our printing on reflective vinyl.

Thank you.

 

[balstestrat]

So why is that? Use normal profile and print, the colours ain't going to magically disappear.
You didn't even say what printer you are using...

 

[Andy D]

Do you mean the the only colors to print correctly or the only colors that print at all?

Regardless, what I typically do is print to clear vinyl and mount to the reflective.

 

[MikePro]

never any issue here, aside from fine tuning my spotcolors/profile to eliminate colors that wanted to reflect a different color than intended.

helpful information to include with these posts, would be your printer, your material, and pics as a reference to your "good vs. bad colors".

 

[a77]

Do you mean the the only colors to print correctly or the only colors that print at all?

Regardless, what I typically do is print to clear vinyl and mount to the reflective.

Can I ask why you would do this?
So if you laminated, you have 3 layers?
I find there are cheap enough printable reflectives.. and they look great printed on (with solvent or latex - although I prefer solvent).

 

[2B]

Are you talking about the "Day" colors or the "Night" colors under low light / illumination?

reflective colors will NEVER look the same from Day to Night, specifically the 3 colors you have listed

ORAFOL ORALITE 5650RA is what we use and very happy with it

 

[Andy D]

Can I ask why you would do this?
So if you laminated, you have 3 layers?
I find there are cheap enough printable reflectives.. and they look great printed on (with solvent or latex - although I prefer solvent).

I have done it both ways, but I don't do a lot of reflective signs, so instead of having a bunch of drop from the roll, or if I want to use scrap reflective, I do it that way.
Plus, reflective tends to tunnel and I run my print head on the low setting, last thing I need is it jamming up and messing up my print head.

 

[a77]

I have done it both ways, but I don't do a lot of reflective signs, so instead of having a bunch of drop from the roll, or if I want to use scrap reflective, I do it that way.
Plus, reflective tends to tunnel and I run my print head on the low setting, last thing I need is it jamming up and messing up my print head.

Got it, thanks.
One thing about printing on reflective you need it really nice and clean. If anyone touches it and you print over it, you have problems - oily fingerprints show in the image. I can see how printing on clear will help with this and allow you to mount onto any reflective you have at the shop, so it's not a bad idea at all.

 

[ikarasu]

Got it, thanks.
One thing about printing on reflective you need it really nice and clean. If anyone touches it and you print over it, you have problems - oily fingerprints show in the image. I can see how printing on clear will help with this and allow you to mount onto any reflective you have at the shop, so it's not a bad idea at all.

Buy a latex! We print on reflective all day everyday...never any fingerprints.

I love my solvent, and I got used to it enough that I put my 560 up for sale. Then I printed a banner... Just moving it 30 mins after it was done printing I got a hand print on it.

On the latex you can man handle the prints and it's never an issue... Now that I'm back on a solvent, I have to be more careful. Not the end of the world... But I feel like the latex is leaps ahead of the solvent on banners due to how unscrstchabke it is. Same with regular prints... I feel like if I look at the solvent printer wrong while removing the roll they'll get finger marks on them. Operator errror, I know ...

Plus on a latex you waste 2 ft Everytime you load, so it ensures there's no hand prints...

 

[Sero]

So why is that? Use normal profile and print, the colours ain't going to magically disappear.
You didn't even say what printer you are using...

I'm sorry. I'm just the customer support agent so I don't know much about the printing process, I'm just trying to improve the business. Turns out we don't print on reflective vinyl, we have it ready in those 3 colors, and we just cut it.
Looks like my question has changed lol, what kind of printer do we need to start printing on reflective vinyl? is it a special type of printer? are there certain methods to it?

 

[Sero]

Do you mean the the only colors to print correctly or the only colors that print at all?

Regardless, what I typically do is print to clear vinyl and mount to the reflective.

Turns out we don't print on vinyl lol, we get them in those 3 corols and we cut them out, but the method that you use is very interesting, do you just print on regular vinyl and stick the reflective vinyl on top of it? or you stick the regular vinyl that you printed on top of the reflective vinyl?
What color is the reflective vinyl that you're using? Sorry if I asked a lot of questions.

 

[Sero]

Can I ask why you would do this?
So if you laminated, you have 3 layers?
I find there are cheap enough printable reflectives.. and they look great printed on (with solvent or latex - although I prefer solvent).

Thank you for the info, what type of printer do you use?

 

[Sero]

Are you talking about the "Day" colors or the "Night" colors under low light / illumination?

reflective colors will NEVER look the same from Day to Night, specifically the 3 colors you have listed

ORAFOL ORALITE 5650RA is what we use and very happy with it

Got it, thank you

 

[ikarasu]

Turns out we don't print on vinyl lol, we get them in those 3 corols and we cut them out, but the method that you use is very interesting, do you just print on regular vinyl and stick the reflective vinyl on top of it? or you stick the regular vinyl that you printed on top of the reflective vinyl?
What color is the reflective vinyl that you're using? Sorry if I asked a lot of questions.

It depends on what type of reflective and what you're doing with it. A latex can print on all the primsmatics and glass beads... You won't be traffic certified unless you buy a specific one though.

A solvent can print on all the glass beads... Some solvents can print on primsmatics... But again, unless you buy a specific one you're not certified.

I don't know if UV roll printers can print on reflective great or not. ..not much experience besides our fb500 which sucks at it.