We are going to talk about what is flex printing meaning and how flex printing is different from other printing techniques that is screen printing and digital printing.
What is flex printing?
Flex printing is also referred to as vinyl banners.
Flex printing means where there is thin plastic coated substances as the upper layer and there is fabric below it to provide strength and protection from the outside damage that might cause from heat or rain. In flex printing, special ink is used. There are different types of flex printing.
Frontlit flex printing
In this printing, the sheet doesn’t need any artificial lights like bulbs. It is illuminated by the light of the sun.
Backlit flex printing banner
For this, there are a number of bulbs required for illumination.
The uses of flex printing banner is done is various small events like birthday parties, inauguration party and even in weddings. Flex printing is suited for banner printing but not on fabrics. The application of Flex printing is generally done on the fabric that is thick. It is also used on leather jackets. The cost involved in the production of such article is high.
There are many fault lines associated with this method of printing T- shirts. One being you don’t get enough scope for the application of multiple colors. Secondly, during the application of flex printing, the design or the t- shirt can get skewed. Thirdly, it is possible that the printing comes off after some time.
There are other types of printing techniques as well, which is screen printing. Let’s talk about screen printing.
Screen printing is one of the widely known and mostly used printing techniques. It has gone under various changes and advancement over a period of time since the time of its inception. A lot of efforts have been made to improve the quality of printing. Screen printing is the technique of printing that involves pressing the ink over the stenciled screen through the mesh to print the design.
As I said earlier, it is widely used printing technique. It is used in various different- different businesses for several reasons. You must have bought some screen printed product or you must have bought some t- shirt printed by the screen printing technique. Or you must have been to confectionery store where you might have some cakes or pastries packed, pay attention to the packaging box of cakes and pastries. Those boxes are mostly printed with the screen printing technology.
Under screen printing, one can witness that the application of color is done separately. This means the for one color say blue, it has one separate screen for color blue. Then if you wanted to apply another color, then there is a separate screen for the application of that color, then for another and this goes on and on. In total there are 5 different screens for the design printing. The designer coverage is really immense. Also, it is possible to print in large quantity within short time period.
See if you are asking for guarantee to have good quality printing then let me tell it all depends on the printer, machines, and the colored ink or for that matter the kind of t- shirt fabric that you are going to use. There are many types of machines, printer and inks are available in the market. It is upon you as to which machine, printer, fabric that you choose for your t- shirt manufacturing business or for other printing uses. For screen printing, Pantone colors are used.
One thing, I would like to say that it is true that anything that is offered at minimum price is really attractive. But don’t comes in its enticement. Look for the machine, printer, fabric of t- shirt and ink for the printer that gives you high quality product. Using a high quality product may lead to increase in cost of production, but do remember that a low quality product may attract customers for once where as a good quality standard product will pull customers towards it again and again.
This will help in establishing customer loyalty towards your brand and create a long lasting relationship. These very customers will also help in marketing your brand name by the most influential marketing technique called word of mouth that spread faster, reach farther and attract higher.
Another type of printing technique is digital printing. Digital printing involves printing the image directly to the various media substrates from the digital images. The digital based images and other files can be easily sent from any desktop to the other media substrates. For example, it can be easily sent to printing press for the printing of the design or content on to the paper for printing advertisement or pamphlet printing.
It can be easily send to other industries like fabric industry and synthetic industry. This printing technique is different from other offset printing technique, which requires the use of printing plate. In digital printing technique, the printing plate is not used which means a lot of time, energy and money is saved. In the traditional offset printing, the image or design is transferred on to the surface with the use of metal plate.
The digital printing technique is recently developed and also various technological advancement, innovations and improvements are happening every now and then. Also the current demand, requirements and global technology is rapidly moving towards digital enhancement has made this printing method more appealing. Printing done with the help of digital printing techniques provides high quality images or content be it simple or complex. There are various advantages attached to digital printing technique which are as follows:
- it is cost effective method of production
- The quality of printing is higher
- There is no limitation of colors. Any number of colors can be printed easily.
- It is easier to print complex designs.
- It can be print on demand.
There are various types of digital printers available in the market. You can buy from printers like production inkjet printer, sheet-fed production printer, continuous feed printer, cut sheet printer press, etc. Depending on the business, one can buy any of the available printers.
These are different types of printing techniques. I hope, you may find this information useful.