Clear Vinyl printed Without White

[bois323]

Recently I have been getting some demand for clear printed vinyl. I have been outsourcing it because I have a Designjet and it does not print white.

However, I saw a clear vinyl from Kapco that can be printed with my ink.

My question is, does your printer have to print white for clear vinyl? I would think without a white base it would come too transparent.

I was talking to another shop owner and he tells me that he saw this once (clear vinyl without a white base) and he says it looked good. I'm a little sceptical.

Anyone have experience with this.

 

[Jackpine]

I've done it with an Epson 7700and pigment ink on Kapco clear and the customers liked the prints. I printed high quality and laminated with no problems.
White ink would be nice but ......

 

[Fastsigns2041]

It depends what the customer needs/expects. The only thing we usually use clear vinyl for is small acrylic plaques that we reverse print and stick on the back side and then overlay with white. I keep a few samples like this that only have half white on the back to show them what to expect.

 

[gnemmas]

Depend on the application.

If it is going to apply on non-white surface, including glass, it will diminish the print colors.

 

[J Hill Designs]

I print on clear all the time. but yeah, it needs to be applied to a white substrate to look right.

 

[WhiskeyDreamer]

I've had lots of customers come in off the street with clear decals that don't have a white backer. They want one of two things. If it's for a car, they want me to mount it to magnetic. If it's not for a car, they want me to recreate and print a qty with a white backer so they can give/sell them to their friends that got the same clear with no white backer.

 

[WYLDGFI]

As a MM here..we went for a UV printer with white ink. We rarely use it...most of the ink gets purged and thrown away it seems. Its really a niche thing and our clients that utilize us for white ink jobs love the capabilities it provides but some dont want to pay the additional pricing for it. It does look fantastic on a clear with the image on top of it!! Have to sell clear as a stained glass look or the white backup and color properties it can give you on the substrate.

 

[bois323]

Thanks for the responses.

I will buy a roll of the Kapco to try. I was looking around my shop to see if I could come up with something I could use the clear with when I saw my roll of Avery Special Effects vinyl (Silver Illusion). It really reflects the lights in the night.

So I will use it as a background and stick the clear print on top. Hopefully you'll be able to see the reflective through the print but be opaque enough to see the print clearly during the day.

Another Mad Experiment.lol. Will post my results next week.