The short answer
UV printing uses ink that is cured, or set solid, by ultraviolet light the moment it lands. The print is dry instantly, it can go onto almost any flat material, and it can be cut straight away. We chose UV LED because one technology covers rolls and rigid boards, prints directly onto signs without mounting, keeps our turnaround fast, right up to same day, and is kinder to the environment than solvent printing.
What is UV printing?
Most inks dry the slow way: water or solvent evaporates and leaves the colour behind. UV ink works differently. It contains photoinitiators that react to ultraviolet light, so when the UV lamp passes over, the liquid ink hardens into a solid film in a fraction of a second. Nothing needs to soak in or air off.
Because the ink sits on the surface and sets instantly, UV printing works on materials that ordinary inks struggle with: plastics, metals, acrylic, foam boards and coated media, as well as the usual vinyl, canvas and paper.
How UV curing works, in three steps
Our UV printers
Everything we print in house runs on two UV LED machines in our West London studio.
Liyu Platinum Q3-XL
A 3.2 metre hybrid roll to roll and flatbed UV LED printer. Up to 2400 dpi, a 5 picolitre droplet, materials up to 50 mm thick and up to 8 colour channels including white and varnish.
Fuji Acuity Prime L
A true LED UV flatbed with a 3.2 x 2 metre bed, printing up to 202 square metres an hour. It's our go to for rigid boards, hoardings and dance floor sheets.
Real jobs from our studio: the YOTELPAD hoarding on 3 mm ACM, a foam board media wall, a canvas step and repeat at the Natural History Museum and a London skyline acrylic for Ilford Hotels.
UV vs eco solvent, latex, dye sublimation and screen printing
Every print method has its strengths. Here's an honest side by side of the main large format options.
| UV LED | Eco solvent | Latex | Dye sublimation | Screen print | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| How the ink sets | Cured instantly by UV LED light | Solvent evaporates from the print | Water based ink dried with heat | Dye turned to gas by heat and absorbed into polyester | Ink pushed through a mesh stencil, then dried or cured |
| Rigid boards | Yes, straight onto the board | Mainly roll media, so boards are print and mount | Mostly roll fed | No, polyester fabric and coated items | Yes, but one screen per colour |
| Roll media | Yes on a hybrid like our Liyu | Yes | Yes | Fabric only | Limited |
| Ready to finish | Straight away | Usually left to outgas before laminating | Dry off the printer | After the heat transfer step | After drying |
| Smell | Very little | Noticeable solvent smell | Low | Low | Depends on the ink |
| Solvents and VOCs | Very low, no solvent to dry off | Solvent based, so higher | Low, water based | Low | Depends on the ink |
| White ink | Yes on our Liyu, plus varnish | Some models | Some models | No | Yes, as a spot colour |
| Set up per design | None, it's digital | None | None | None | A screen for every colour |
| Best for | Signs, boards, banners, wallpaper, dance floors, displays | Vinyl, banners, vehicle graphics | Wallpaper, indoor graphics, vinyl | Flags, soft signage, sportswear | Long runs of simple designs |
General comparison. Exact abilities vary from one printer model to another.
From print to finished
The biggest everyday difference is what happens after the print comes off the machine.
UV LED
- Cut
Eco solvent
- Outgas
- Laminate
- Cut
Latex
- Laminate
- Cut
With eco solvent, prints are usually left to outgas, letting the solvent escape, before they can be laminated, otherwise the film can bubble or haze. UV ink has no solvent to escape, so it goes straight to finishing. A laminate is still there when your job needs one.
Why we chose UV over the alternatives
One printer, rolls and boards
Our Liyu Platinum Q3-XL is a 3.2 metre hybrid. It prints roll media like vinyl, canvas, wallpaper and banner, then switches to rigid boards up to 50 mm thick on the same machine. One ink set, one colour profile, so your banner and your foamex sign match.
Same day turnaround
UV ink is cured before the print leaves the bed. No drying racks and no waiting for prints to outgas, so boards go straight to our Zund for cutting. That's a big part of how we turn urgent jobs around the same day.
Direct to board, no mounting
UV lets us print straight onto foamex, ACM Dibond, acrylic and Correx on our Fuji Acuity Prime L flatbed. No vinyl to bubble or peel, and no extra mounting step. Read direct to board vs print and mount for the full comparison.
Sharp detail on big prints
The Liyu prints up to 2400 dpi with a 5 picolitre droplet, so small text and photos stay crisp on a 3.2 metre banner.
White and varnish
With white ink we can print bright colours onto clear acrylic and coloured or metallic boards. Varnish adds gloss highlights where you want them.
Kinder to the planet
UV LED is a greener way to print than solvent. Very low VOCs, less energy, no mercury lamps and less material waste. More on that below.
Speed for big jobs
The Liyu prints up to 250 to 360 square metres an hour and the Fuji up to 202 square metres an hour. Event weekends and hoarding runs don't scare us.
Pro tip Because UV ink sits on the surface, it can print onto smooth plastics, metals and acrylic that other inks can't grip. If you have an unusual material in mind, ask us and we'll test it.
Why UV ink is more environmentally friendly
Choosing UV wasn't only about speed and quality. It's also a cleaner way to print than the solvent inks many large format printers still use.
Very low VOCs
Solvent inks dry by letting solvent evaporate into the air. UV ink has no solvent to dry off. It cures by light, so it releases very low levels of VOCs (volatile organic compounds) and there's very little smell in the studio or on your print.
Less energy
Our UV LED lamps switch on only while the head is printing, with no warm up, and use less energy than the mercury lamps of older UV printers. LEDs run cooler too, so there are no big heaters or dryers running.
No mercury
LED curing does away with mercury vapour lamps, and LED lamps last far longer, so fewer bulbs end up as waste.
Less material waste
Printing direct to board cuts out the vinyl, adhesive and backing paper of a mounted sign. Fewer layers means less material in the skip.
Fewer misprints
Ink is cured the instant it lands, so it can't smudge, and every job gets a digital proof first. Getting it right the first time saves material, ink and time.
It all fits with our ISO 14001 environmental management, which covers Print Station through our group.
When UV isn't the answer
- Polyester fabrics. Flags, sportswear and soft fabric graphics are dye sublimation's home turf, where the dye becomes part of the fibre.
- Huge runs of a simple design. Thousands of identical one or two colour items can be cheaper by screen printing once the screens are made.
- Deep curves and stretch. UV ink is less stretchy than solvent or latex ink, so for graphics that wrap tightly around curves the ink and film need careful choosing. Tell us the surface and we'll advise.
What we UV print
From one A3 foamex sign to a street of hoardings, here's where UV LED earns its keep.
Whatever you print, your artwork matters just as much. Send logos and text as vectors (read our vector files guide), keep colours in CMYK (see CMYK vs RGB) and add 3 mm bleed. If your file is RGB we can convert it to CMYK, but there is a possibility of colour change, so you'll see a proof first.
