What is Wide Format Printing?

In answer to the question posed by the article headline, essentially wide format is printing on material larger than A3 in size that uses ink-jet technology (squirting) rather than toner & lasers or ink and plates. It’s a subset of “digital printing” and allows every print to be customised or personalised.  Wide-format printing is best suited to smaller runs. Offset printers can print on sheets as large as A0 whereas wide-format printers are often roll-fed which means that very long banners can be produced (yes, you can even produce your own custom wall paper!)

E tech breaks down into three common classes of machines: technical, poster, and photo. Technical are the origin of this technology back when plans were plotted by marker pens moving over sheets of papers. These days they are super sized inkjet printers that print and cut ‘A’ sized sheets of paper full of complex engineering and construction plans at high speed for a relatively low cost. That’s why they get used to do all the big price signs you see in the supermarkets. The main downside to these machines is that they are more limited on what they can print on and are not really able to do photographic prints. In the middle sits poster systems which use specialized latex or gel inks to put colour on to all sorts of material. Used for everything from the ‘canvas’ banners for billboards to the shrink film used to put artwork on cars, these printers are the workhorse of the wide format field. There are the limitations, that being the square meter cost is higher than technical machines and they don’t have the ultra fine detail that the photo units can produce. The photo printers are just the large sized version of the machines that print your photos in the photo lab. They are designed to get the highest detail and greatest range of colours possible. Using very specialised inks and papers, their output is the best you can get. The down side to them is they are also the most expensive to run and their product isn’t really designed for outdoor use.

The other big advantage with wide format is that it’s very flexible in sizing and what images can be printed on. Of course papers of different weights and finishes are available, but depending on the machine there is also plastic, fabrics, adhesive papers, some machines can even print directly on to core flute (the stuff used for real estate signs.) Because it’s supplied on a roll 10’s of meters long, you can have a custom size print limited by only the width of the roll. Depending on the machine and ‘paper’ used, the finished print would be waterproof and safe for outdoor use so all you have to add is eyelets or mounting strips.

So why would you want to use wide format printing? If you are in the trades, plan printing is a natural. Need a big sign to put in the window to advertise a sale, then a nice big banner is easy do. Run a takeaway bar, how about a custom printed lightbox display. Going to a event and need to be identifiable from a distance, then a banner mounted on a display stand means you can be seen across a crowded floor. And that is just the start of it. Over the years I’ve printed everything from multimillion dollar construction plans that total hundreds of pages, seating charts for weddings, information posters for events, even jumbo sized colouring in pages. Anything you can print on a normal printer you can print in wide format, just a whole lot bigger.

Want to learn more about how wide format printing, why not give a call or a email or just drop in at our shop and see the examples we have on display. Wide format is just one of the many options we offer here at Copy Express, your complete print solution partner.