LFP - Large-Format-Printing
Eclectic Graphic Solutions Provider Pictographics Turns Heads with Screen Truepress Jet2500UV
Monday 17. December 2012 - An uncommonly broad arsenal of capabilities sets Pictographics apart from the crowd and allows the large-format imaging specialist to cultivate high-end clientele. With the addition of the Screen 98.4-inch Truepress Jet2500UV roll and board UV inkjet printer, Pictographics has strengthened its diversity to meet unique customer needs.
“The Truepress Jet2500UV offers the widest range of print applications and the best image quality that currently exist,” said Craig Miller, director and co-owner of Las Vegas-based Pictographics. “Normally, you don’t get those characteristics in one piece of equipment. The Screen printer is alone in the field in generating class-leading image quality and at the same time delivering products with wide-format digital printing that no other machine can accomplish. It fits perfectly into our business model.”
Pictographics’ business model is that of a “boutique job shop” Miller said he doesn’t “even introduce myself as a printer anymore” focused on custom projects in which digital printing is just one service the firm provides. Since its launch in 1994, Pictographics has embraced all of the printing and finishing methods it could, including dye sublimation, lamination and computer cutting. Operating out of a 20,000-square-foot facility with design, sewing and installation departments, the shop prints everything from point-of-purchase displays to specialty wall coverings.
In fact, the breadth of projects is a little difficult to characterize. For example, Pictographics printed graphics for the 2008 and 2012 Democratic National Conventions. More recently, it invented backlit floor graphics for the stage at Clear Channel Broadcasting’s iHeartRadio Music Festival 2012. An increasing amount of business is derived from trade shows, sporting events and entertainment spectaculars.
“When a client like Intel or Ford comes to Las Vegas, we work with event technology companies and agencies on custom graphics for the stage or arena,” Miller explained.
Whether printing one very large display or a large run of very small images, Pictographics can rely on the Truepress Jet2500UV to turn in a winning performance.
“Printing at up to 1,500 dpi resolution with as small as a 6 picoliter drop enables amazingly detailed images,” Miller said. “We can reproduce images the size of postage stamps using 4-point text that can be read with no problem at all.”
The Truepress Jet2500UV is Pictographics’ third UV machine that can switch back and forth between rigid and roll-fed substrates. Miller calls it the “best hybrid printing system I’ve seen.”
“We started offering UV-cured inkjet printing in 2002 and have about as much experience as anyone in the industry,” Miller noted. “Screen has done a good job of overcoming limitations associated with hybrid systems, such as printing directly on glass sheets. Rollers incorporated into the feed table of the Truepress Jet2500UV handle heavy materials extremely well without the risk of surface scratches and misregistration.”
Miller reserves special praise for the Truepress Jet2500UV’s multi-layer printing, a standard function of the device.
“The ability to print up to seven image layers in one pass gives us application versatility we didn’t possess before we installed the Truepress Jet2500UV,” Miller said. “We create interesting special effects on glass, static cling, clear polyester and other transparent media using opaque white and color inks. The multiple image layers produce dividers for restaurants, backlit displays and double-sided window graphics with dense images that really pop. It’s possible to combine transparent, translucent and opaque properties on the same panel in one pass. Screen totally leaves the competition behind.”