Illuminated sign.. best printing option?

[Signarama Grayslake]

I have attached an illuminated sign i need to produce.. its about 36" x 12'.
Would it be best to just print it on translucent vinyl and apply to white acrylic?
Im using roland xc 540 and versa works.
What printer settings should I use? I should also increase the color levels in the color adjustment settings right? so it will lay down more ink..
I would like to hear some options on how to do this, any feedback would be appreciated.

We dont want to do cut vinyl because we would have to order 3 colors of trans vinyl and do not use it often.

 

[Gino]

Welcome from PA..................................

 

[J Hill Designs]

best view/most durable is cut vinyl - with digiprint, you can apply a print on clear then overlay the same print on white translucent in order to get good saturation at night whilst maintaining correct saturation in the daytime..

I would use .177 sign white polycarb as the substrate - 3' height is about the max you want to use without a hangar rail supporting the plastic as it will tend to bow from its own weight.

welcome from cali

 

[Signarama Grayslake]

Trans

We did one before on white acrylic.. printed the yellow background on trans white vinyl and then applied regular black vinyl for the text.. worked good it was an all black logo and text.

Wouldnt laying the clear down first then the trans over it be kinda tricky? I mean wouldnt it show if you were off by a hair?

We also have another 60"x120" sign thats really nice that we are going to have to print.. ill post it up later.

 

[signcrafters london]

We dont want to do cut vinyl because we would have to order 3 colors of trans vinyl and do not use it often.

One of my suppliers in Knoxville will sell all its vinyl by the yard/foot. Comes in handy when you need a color or product you know you'll never use again.

 

[Signarama Grayslake]

Translucent print..

we are going to just print translucent white for this job... I should increase the ink levels under the color adjustment tab right? should i turn the colors all the way to 5?

 

[Gino]

Why don't you just buy a piece that's already white and save the cost of printing ??

 

[Circleville Signs]

So - basically, you asked for help, and then when you got the correct answer, you just choose to ignore it. Why would anyone want to help you if you aren't going to listen?

Color saturation isn't the issue - light source is. You can saturate your inks all you want and it will still look washed out unless you do what was suggested by jhill.

But you don't want to hear that.

 

[LittleSnakey]

Make sure to set versaworks to 2 passes. Just choosing the translucent profile may not set this.

 

[Signarama Grayslake]

...

Well we dont want to print the same image twice onto trans and clear vinyl .. mainly for cost of material.
But we did a trans sign before by just printing on white trans vinyl and it looks fine...

How do I set versaworks to 2 passes?

 

[Brandon708]

Use Cut Vinyl. You know you can order By-the-yard-vinyl from Fellers. You don't need to order whole rolls. Your profit margin would be much higher and the customer would be happier with the finished product.

 

[MikePro]

+1 to this in cut vinyl
looks much sharper and the color won't fade over time like a print. AND you'll have day/night color consistency, which is the reason for double-prints, but WAY LESS costly when using just 1 layer of translucent vinyl.

I only print on white trans. if its too complicated to do with vinyl, unless I can get away with printing ON regular vinyl but I limit myself to only shadows and outlines when printing on material that wasn't meant for solvent ink.

 

[Signarama Grayslake]

...

Well the Plastic face of the sign is white.. so the colors should show good on trans white vinyl / white acrylic correct? We just ordered a roll of trans white because were doing another job printed on trans white also.. so we might as well use it on the sign face i attached earlier.. It is a bit complex and would be a pain to weed.. Lots of small outlines.

So what should I do about printing? Should I change the OverPrint in the Printer Controls Tab to 2? Or should I just turn up the Ink levels under the color adjustment tab? Which woudl be a better option for printing the trans white?
thanks for the help guys..

 

[threeputt]

Don't have the XC we have the SP-540V but what we do is this:

1) Set the controls to "return to point of origin".
2) Set profile for Translucent vinyl.
3) Use Oracal's 3850.
4) When the print finishes, hit print again.
5) Laminate as usual.

Downside is this. With a twelve foot print, the alignment could be off a bit. Depends on complexity of the layout. We recently did two 4'x8' faces with a lot of complexity. I noticed that the print was off lengthwise about 1/32" to 1/16".

But the extra pass on the inks gives the color far more depth.

 

[Sign Prophet]

This is an easy cut vinyl job. Like others have said, Fellers sells translucent film by the yard. I too would also make sure a Hang-bar is installed on this face.

my 2 cents! I dont own a digital printer so I almost always go with cut vinyl if I can. It may be easier to print for you though.

 

[Mainframe]

I just did a 3' x 14' 3850 print on my VP 540, it is a red & white 3d logo with black block out all around it. I set veraworks to dry for 30 minutes before it went back to origin, & the print hit dead on the second time, unreal to watch! The sign is located directly across from my shop so I wanted it perfect. I am happy with it & so is the customer. I must ad I don't like the text size on your sign, too small, the graphics should take more of a back seat to the text, just my opinion. I would print this sign in a heartbeat no question over cut trans vinyl, lighted sign face prints were one big reason I bought the printer & it has served me well so far.