Printing on perspex?

[flameop]

Anyone had a print done on perspex? I'm thinking of getting something printed out then lighting it from behind. Would the heat from the lights screw the print ? Would the light even get through the print ? :/

cheers

S

[J1mmyD]

Plenty of HGVs have this already - eg the Volvo Globetrotter - as a perspex strip with the company name backlit above the cab.

Because of that, I wouldn't have thought heat is an issue. Any good signwriter should be able to give you advice and prices.

[megy]

Something i have seen before is a cheap light box hung on the wall, the print is then printed, using an inkjet printer, onto over head projector perspex, which is then placed on the light box, you should then be able to get a frame to go over the lot.

Hope that helps

[flameop]

ahh good idea!.. thanks..

[V6GTO]

Fluorescent tubes only get lukewarm.

Martin.

[flameop]

well I've done some surfing.. Some print onto perspex.. some print on paper then glue it to the perspex.. thats all in the fineprint though.. grrr..

not sure how they get the transparent bits on the image like here www.willinspire.com/frames_perspex.html

though this looks pretty cool.. www.acrylicize.com/mainFrame.cfm

[megy]

One thing i thought of on my way home from work, if you do this, when you print, print it as a reversed image, then place with the ink side to the lightbox, thn it doesnt matter what happens to the outside face of the print, it wont scratch the ink off.

[Mr Beckerman]

Hmm, there's always the option of printing the image onto a piece of waterslide transfer paper and then applying it to the piece of perspex, but you wouldn't have any white parts of the image printed (not a problem if the background you're using behind the perspex is a suitable colour)

I get mine from;

www.craftycomputerpaper.co.uk/

[jon h]

There are a number of options for printing to perspex. Up until recently, images would be printed to a suitable substate either photographically onto a suitable substrate (Duratrans being the Kodak product for backlit transparencies) or digitally, typically an inkjet, to a backlit film. This is then bonded to the underside of the acrylic using an optically clear adhesive. Done well it looks the business. Some inkjets using UV curing ink can now print directly to the acrylic, but for top quality, you still cannot beat a "duratrans" (to complicate the issue further, a duratrans can be printed using a digital process too, with the photographic image printed via laser using a machine called a Durst Lambda)

I would suggest a Professional Photographic laboratory would be the place to go.

Hope that helps

Jon H

[flameop]

thanks for that Jon, shall look into it..