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Best substrate for photos

1266 Views 10 Replies 3 Participants Last post by  and3008, 
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I just bought the Artisan 1430 with Cobra Inks. I want to specialize in keepsake photos. I like the videos of the Colorlyte glass panels and the acrylic panels, as well. I have tried a couple of the Colorlyte glass panels and they just seem dull and when you put them in a window or anywhere light hits them - they seem dull. And one of the great things about them is how beautiful they are supposed to be when the light hits them. So..may try the acrylic curved panels, but hate to invest in the cooling jig ($50) and get the same effect. I don't think it's my ink and paper - prints the colors dark and I know they're supposed to look dull until sublimated.
I get great prints on poly material substrates so may also try canvas for photos, although anyone can buy those online pretty cheap. Or maybe used the Texprint paper which get more ink, although Conde recommends the DyeTran plain paper. Would love to have some input out there from people printing photos. Sorry to be so long winded.
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webtrekker
Is the ICC profile you received from Cobra installed properly and have you turned ON colour management in your graphics software and turned OFF colour management in your printer driver?

Are you sure you are printing on the right side of the paper?
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Yes, I have done all of these things and I have no problem with colors. I can sublimate to poly shirts with no problems (except for the dreaded heat press paper lines). I think it's something with the actual Colorlyte panels - it kind of makes sense that when sunlight shines through glass it will make the image more transparent. I will keep at it and thank you for the reply.
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webtrekker
Maybe try some self-adhesive backing to stop the light getting through.

I cut and bend my own clear acrylic stands and print images to aluminium sheet placed behind the acrylic and the colours are great.
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and3008 said:
I just bought the Artisan 1430 with Cobra Inks. I want to specialize in keepsake photos. I like the videos of the Colorlyte glass panels and the acrylic panels, as well. I have tried a couple of the Colorlyte glass panels and they just seem dull and when you put them in a window or anywhere light hits them - they seem dull. And one of the great things about them is how beautiful they are supposed to be when the light hits them. So..may try the acrylic curved panels, but hate to invest in the cooling jig ($50) and get the same effect. I don't think it's my ink and paper - prints the colors dark and I know they're supposed to look dull until sublimated.
I get great prints on poly material substrates so may also try canvas for photos, although anyone can buy those online pretty cheap. Or maybe used the Texprint paper which get more ink, although Conde recommends the DyeTran plain paper. Would love to have some input out there from people printing photos. Sorry to be so long winded.
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One of the best looking products for photos is Cromalux aluminum panels. We sell a lot of them to photographers and the like.
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Amw said:
One of the best looking products for photos is Cromalux aluminum panels. We sell a lot of them to photographers and the like.
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Thank you, I will try those!
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Thank you for the reply. That sounds like a good idea, just not sure how much extra cost that would be besides the fact I don't know anything about bending acrylic except by using the expensive jig.
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webtrekker
and3008 said:
Thank you for the reply. That sounds like a good idea, just not sure how much extra cost that would be besides the fact I don't know anything about bending acrylic except by using the expensive jig.
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I made my own hot wire acrylic bending machine using 30cm of 26 gauge Nichrome wire connected to a 30V/5A lab power supply set to deliver a constant current of about 4.3A (voltage is about 11.4V at this current). This gets the wire to the temperature I need and only takes 30 secs to 1 minute to bend 2mm or 3mm acrylic to any angle I want.

Whole lot, including the power supply (new from ebay) cost a little over £50.
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webtrekker
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Here's a quick example of an acrylic photo frame that I bent myself since making my last post. It's very quick and simple!

[See attachments]

The picture was just printed on photo-glossy paper as an example, but normally I'd sublimate the image onto aluminium sheet to slot into the stand.

As you can see, the acrylic can be bent to any angle, including a full 180 degrees to make a clip at the top of the stand.

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webtrekker said:
Here's a quick example of an acrylic photo frame that I bent myself since making my last post. It's very quick and simple!

[See attachments]

The picture was just printed on photo-glossy paper as an example, but normally I'd sublimate the image onto aluminium sheet to slot into the stand.

As you can see, the acrylic can be bent to any angle, including a full 180 degrees to make a clip at the top of the stand.
Click to expand...
If people in the USA want to make things like this... we have available (you do probably also) these. They come in a few sizes and are cheap to buy.
You plug it into a standard plug and lay it on your substrate (acrylic, etc). It heats up the area that you place it over and that will allow you to bend it in to the angle/shape you want it. Here is a link to the 1st one that showed up in a search. https://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=23123&catid=0&clickid=popcorn

They also make much more expensive solutions as well for people in production situations.

Also to the OP...
You do not HAVE to bend the acrylic....just get a blank and sublimate it and see what you think of the quality of the print/product. If you like it then you can buy whatever device you want to use to bend it, if you want it bent etc.

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Yes, I think I will just try sublimating a small one and see how it looks before jumping into buying bending devices, but thank you for the response - it at least gives me other bending device options.
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