Print Media Buying Guide

How to pick what you print on

You picked your printer. You picked your software. Now you have to pick the roll that goes in the machine, and this is where a lot of good prints go wrong.

The print is only as good as what it is printed on. Put outdoor artwork on indoor media and it fades in a season. Put a flat-panel vinyl on a van door and you fight bubbles all afternoon. Neither of those is a printer problem.

Work the steps in order. In a hurry? Go to printable vinyl, or call 903-462-7700 and tell us the job.

Step 1: Say where the graphic is going

Start here, because the surface decides almost everything else. Find your job in this table.

Step 2: Check that the media matches your ink

Do this before you order anything. It is the mistake that wastes a whole roll.

Media is coated for a kind of ink. The coating is what makes the ink sit down and dry instead of beading up or smearing. A roll made for latex ink will not behave in an eco-solvent machine, and the other way round.

So look for your ink type on the listing:

• Eco-solvent or solvent. This is what most sign shop printers use, including PrismJET, Mutoh and Mimaki eco-solvent machines.
• Latex. A different chemistry that needs its own media.
• UV. Cured by light as it prints.

Our listings say which ink a media is for. If you are not sure what your machine uses, tell us the model and we will tell you. Do not guess on a full roll.

Step 3: Decide how long it has to last

Media is sold by how many years it holds up outside. Longer life costs more, so match it to the job instead of buying the best of everything.

Two rules that save arguments later.

The rating assumes you laminated it. Most durability numbers are for a laminated graphic. Skip the laminate and you do not get the years on the box.

The rating assumes normal exposure. A sign facing south in Texas gets far more sun than the same sign facing north. If it is in full sun all day, buy up a grade.

Step 4: Learn cast versus calendered, because it decides the hard jobs

There are two ways to make vinyl, and the difference is not marketing. It changes what the material can physically do.

Calendered vinyl is squeezed out through rollers, like rolling dough. It comes out with tension in it, so over time it wants to shrink back. It is thicker and it costs less. On a flat panel it is perfect and you should not pay more.

Cast vinyl is poured on as a liquid and dried, so there is almost no tension in it. It is thinner, it stretches into shapes and stays there, and it lasts longer. It costs more.

Here is the rule, and there is no way around it.

• Flat surface? Calendered is fine. Save the money.
• Curves, dents, rivets or deep channels? Cast. Calendered will pull out of a recess weeks later and lift at the edges.
• Any vehicle you are wrapping? Cast. Always.

See printable car wrap vinyl and the car wrap guide.

Step 5: Look for air release on anything large

Air release is a pattern of tiny channels in the adhesive. Air escapes through them instead of getting trapped as a bubble.

It sounds like a small feature. It is the single biggest labor saver in the whole category. On a big flat panel or a wrap panel, air release turns a two-person fight into a one-person job, and it cuts your reprints because fewer panels get ruined.

If you install anything wider than about two feet, buy media with air release and do not think about it again. See air egress printable vinyl.

Step 6: Match the roll width to your printer

Two things people get wrong here.

The roll has to be narrower than your printer. Your machine needs margin at the edges to grip the material. A 54 inch printer does not print 54 inches of image on a 54 inch roll. Ask us for the real printable width of your model.

Buy common widths. Media in standard sizes costs less per square foot and is always in stock. Odd widths cost more, take longer to get, and leave you waste on every job.

Step 7: Get the color profile before you print

A color profile tells your software how this exact media takes this exact ink. Without one, your reds go orange and your grays go green, and no amount of squinting at the screen fixes it.

Do this: before you buy a new media, check that a profile exists for it. Our downloads page has profiles, and this article explains how to load them.

If you run a PrismJET printer with LXi 26 RIP Design, this is already handled. It ships with profiles built for PrismJET printers, PrismJET ink and PrismJET media as a matched set. That is the easiest path to color that matches the first time.

What we stock, by brand

Buying ink and media together often prices better. See ink and media combos, and feed it with EnduraINK PRO.

Two printable specialties worth knowing about. EnduraLITE R8512 is a printable reflective film, which means you can print full colour artwork onto material that still bounces headlights back. And you can print on Schein Holographics, our exclusive chrome and holographic film, for graphics nobody else in your market can make. There is a guide for it: printing on Schein Holographic Vinyl.

Then laminate it

Lamination is a clear film you roll on over the print. It is not a finishing touch. It is what stops the sun fading your ink and stops scuffing wearing it off.

You need it on anything outdoors, anything on a vehicle, and anything walked on. See our laminating guide for how to choose the film, or go straight to laminating film.

How much to buy

A roll is sold by width and length. Multiply them to get square feet. A 54 inch roll that is 150 feet long is 4.5 feet by 150 feet, so 675 square feet.

That number is the one to plan with, because it is also how ink is measured. If you know you print about 675 square feet a month, you are using roughly one roll a month, and you can work out your ink orders from the same figure. See the ink usage calculator.

Two habits worth building.

• Keep one spare roll of your most common media. Running out mid job costs you more than the roll does.
• Do not stock up on odd sizes. Buy deep on the one or two widths you use every week and order the rest per job.

Store it properly or it goes bad on the shelf

Media is not like lumber. It ages, and bad storage ruins rolls you already paid for.

• Stand rolls up, or hang them on a rack. A roll lying on its side goes out of round and then it feeds crooked and tracks badly.
• Keep it off a concrete floor. Concrete pulls damp straight into the core.
• Same room as the printer. Cold media brought into a warm shop can sweat, and damp media will not take ink properly. Give a new roll a few hours to reach room temperature before you load it.
• Out of the sun. Vinyl fades on the shelf just like it fades on a sign.
• Use the oldest roll first. Adhesive gets harder to work with as it ages. Write the date on the box when it arrives.

See storage racks.

What goes wrong, and why

Where to start, by job

General sign shop, one roll to keep on the shelf

A mid grade white printable vinyl in your printer's common width, plus a gloss laminate. That combination covers most of what walks in the door. Browse printable vinyl.

Vehicle wraps

Cast wrap film with air release, plus a wrap grade laminate. Nothing cheaper will do. See printable wrap vinyl and the car wrap guide.

Banners

Match the weight to the wind. Indoor hanging banners can be light. Anything outdoors in weather needs a heavier scrim.

Two ways to go. Print it yourself on PrismJET 13 oz high strength or PrismJET 10 oz economy banner media. Or start with a finished blank and cut vinyl onto it, using EnduraMAX premium banner blanks, which come already hemmed and grommeted in 10 oz and 13 oz.

The EnduraMAX seams are heat welded, not stitched. The layers are fused together, so there is no thread to rot in the sun and no stitch line for a tear to start from. Seams are where banners fail, so that is the spec worth paying attention to.

See printable banner, PrismJET banner media, EnduraMAX blanks and all blank banners.

Window graphics

Perforated film if people need to see out. Solid vinyl if they do not. See perforated window film.

Interior walls and floors

Use media made for the job. Wall media is built to come off without taking the paint. Floor graphics need a laminate rated for foot traffic. See wall and floor vinyl and wall media.

Road and safety signs

Reflective sheeting, and the grade is set by regulation rather than by preference. Our own EnduraLITE range all meets ASTM D4956, and the R8512 is printable. Read the reflective sheeting and DOT compliance guide before you quote one of these.

Ask these six questions before you order a roll

1. Is this media made for my ink?
2. Is it cast or calendered, and does my surface have curves?
3. How many years outdoors, and is that number with or without laminate?
4. Does it have air release?
5. Is there a color profile for it, and where do I get it?
6. What is the actual printable width on my machine with this roll?

Related pages

• All printable vinyl
• Wide-format printer buying guide
• Laminating guide · laminating film
• Adhesive vinyl guide for cut vinyl rather than printed
• Car wrap guide · signs, banners and substrates
• Color charts and catalogs
• Color profiles and downloads
• Applications assistant to pick a material by job

Tell us the job and we will tell you the roll. Where is it going, how long does it need to last, and what printer do you run? Call 903-462-7700 or contact us.