Latex vs. Solvent Printing: Why the Printer Behind Your Wrap Actually Matters

Most customers choosing a vehicle wrap will spend quite a bit of time thinking about the things they can see. The design. The colors. Whether they want gloss, satin or matte. Maybe they'll compare different vinyl manufacturers or ask how long the wrap should last.

What they probably won't ask is, "What kind of printer are you using?"

I understand why. Unless you work in the wide-format printing industry, a printer is a printer. You send an image to it, ink comes out and eventually you have graphics.

Except it isn't quite that simple.

From the production side of the business, the technology we use to print your graphics has an enormous impact on our workflow. More importantly, some of those differences can directly affect the product you ultimately receive.

Two of the technologies commonly associated with wide-format vehicle graphics are latex and solvent-based ink systems. I've worked around wide-format production long enough to appreciate what both technologies have contributed to this industry, but there are some important differences between them.

And if you're a customer, here's what those differences actually mean to you.

First, What Is a Latex Printer?

Latex printing uses a water-based ink system containing pigments and polymer components that are cured during the printing process. Heat inside the printer removes the water and helps form the printed image on the media.

That's the technical explanation.

From my side of the printer, one of the biggest practical advantages is much simpler: when a properly produced latex print comes off the printer, it is essentially ready for the next stage of production.

That matters a lot more than it might sound like it does.

With traditional solvent and eco-solvent printing, the ink's carrier needs time to evaporate from the printed material. This is generally referred to as outgassing. Depending on the ink, media, coverage and production conditions, a shop needs to account for this before laminating the graphics.

If you trap residual solvents underneath laminate too soon, you can potentially create problems with the finished graphic and adhesive performance.

Latex fundamentally changes that part of the production workflow.

Why Does Drying and Outgassing Matter to a Customer?

Let's say your vehicle wrap consists of several hundred square feet of printed graphics.

Those graphics aren't simply printed, rolled up and put on your vehicle. In a professional production environment, the files have to be prepared and color managed, the material has to be printed, the graphics generally need to be laminated, and then everything has to be trimmed, paneled, labeled and prepared for installation.

Every one of those steps takes time.

With solvent printing, there is another important consideration between printing and finishing: giving the print sufficient time to outgas before it is laminated.

With latex, we can move from printing into finishing much more quickly.

For the customer, that can mean a more efficient production cycle and fewer delays between approved artwork and installation. It doesn't mean we should rush your wrap—it means we can spend our production time producing it instead of waiting for ink chemistry to do its thing.

Then There's the Smell

If you've ever walked into a shop running solvent printers, particularly older solvent equipment, you may have noticed a distinctive odor.

That's the chemistry.

Modern eco-solvent systems have improved considerably, but latex printing has a very different production profile because the ink is primarily water-based rather than relying on the same type of solvent carrier.

For the customer receiving a vehicle wrap, this can mean substantially less of that characteristic solvent-ink odor associated with freshly produced graphics.

This becomes even more important when we're producing graphics for places other than vehicles.

We print wall graphics, interior branding, retail graphics and other materials that may eventually be installed in offices, businesses or other occupied spaces. In those environments, reducing the odor associated with the printing process can be a meaningful advantage.

As someone responsible for production, I appreciate it in our own work environment too.

What About Print Quality?

This is where I think the conversation sometimes gets oversimplified.

Can a good solvent printer produce beautiful graphics?

Absolutely.

Can a good latex printer produce beautiful graphics?

Absolutely.

The quality of a finished print depends on much more than the name of the ink technology. Printer condition, media profiles, resolution, color management, file preparation, ink limits and—most importantly—the person operating the equipment all play a role.

A $20,000, $30,000 or $50,000 printer doesn't automatically produce great color just because someone pushed the PRINT button.

That's where production experience comes into the equation.

When I'm looking at a print, I'm watching skin tones, neutral grays, gradients, solid-color consistency, small text, saturation and whether we're reproducing the artwork the way it was intended to look.

For a vehicle wrap, consistency is especially important. One side of a vehicle can't be a slightly different blue than the other because it was printed at another time or under different conditions.

Technology helps us achieve consistency.

But the operator still matters.

A lot.

Latex Gives Us Flexibility in Production

One of the biggest benefits of latex from a production-management standpoint is versatility.

A modern wide-format operation may be printing vehicle wraps in the morning, wall graphics in the afternoon and signage or other specialty graphics later in the day. Different materials behave differently, and having equipment capable of moving between applications efficiently is extremely valuable.

That flexibility may sound like a benefit to the print shop rather than the customer.

It's actually both.

A more efficient production department gives us greater control over scheduling. It allows us to respond when something changes. It gives us the ability to move jobs through production without unnecessarily tying up equipment waiting for printed material to become ready for the next process.

When you're waiting to get your business vehicle back on the road, those efficiencies matter.

Does Latex Make the Wrap Last Longer?

Not automatically.

This is another claim I would be careful about making.

The longevity of a vehicle wrap is the result of a system, not simply the ink.

The vinyl matters. The laminate matters. The ink matters. The printer profile matters. The condition of the vehicle matters. Installation matters. How the vehicle is stored and maintained matters.

You can print beautiful graphics and ruin them with poor installation. You can perform a beautiful installation using the wrong material for the application. And you can use premium vinyl and laminate but get disappointing results if the production process isn't properly controlled.

That's why we look at the entire combination.

When we produce a wrap, we're not just buying a roll of vinyl and putting ink on it. We're creating a finished graphic system that needs to survive sunlight, rain, washing, temperature changes and thousands of miles of real-world use.

Here in the Pacific Northwest, sometimes it gets to experience most of those things before lunch.

There Are Environmental and Workplace Considerations Too

I'm a production person, so I'm naturally going to think about what is happening inside the shop as well as what eventually goes outside the door.

Reducing reliance on solvent-heavy chemistry has advantages in a production environment. Latex inks are water-based, and that changes some of the ventilation, odor and handling considerations compared with traditional solvent printing.

That doesn't mean latex printing has zero environmental impact. No industrial printing process does. We still consume ink, electricity, vinyl, release liner, laminate and other materials.

I think it's more responsible to acknowledge that than pretend printing is somehow environmentally invisible.

What we can do is choose technologies and processes that make sense for our employees, our customers and the type of work we're producing.

Latex has been a very good fit for that philosophy.

Is There Anything Solvent Does Better?

There are reasons solvent and eco-solvent printing have remained part of the wide-format industry for so long.

The equipment can be extremely capable. There are excellent solvent printers producing excellent work every day, and experienced operators know how to get remarkable results from them. Certain shops may also prefer solvent technology because of their particular applications, existing workflow, equipment investment or material requirements.

So I wouldn't tell a customer to reject a wrap shop simply because they use solvent equipment.

I'd ask a different question:

Does the shop understand its production process?

Are they using quality materials? Are their printers properly maintained? Do they understand color management? Are solvent prints given appropriate outgassing time before lamination? Are they matching the ink, vinyl and laminate correctly? Are they following the manufacturer's recommendations?

Those questions tell me considerably more about the quality of the finished wrap than the word printed on the front of the printer.

What Does All of This Really Mean for You?

Probably the most important thing I can tell a customer is that a great vehicle wrap begins long before an installer touches your vehicle.

It starts with artwork prepared correctly for large-format reproduction. It continues through color management, material selection, printing, curing, lamination, trimming, paneling and quality control.

By the time your graphics reach our installation department, a lot has already happened.

Our preference for latex printing comes from living with that production process every day. We like the workflow. We like being able to move printed graphics into finishing without the traditional solvent outgassing period. We like the reduced solvent odor. We like the versatility. And, when everything is properly managed, we like the quality and consistency we're able to produce.

For you, the customer, most of that work should be invisible.

You shouldn't have to understand ink chemistry.

You shouldn't have to know what a RIP profile is, what an ICC profile does, how much ink we're laying down or why we chose a particular print mode.

That's our job.

Your job is much easier.

You should be able to walk outside, look at your finished vehicle and think:

That's exactly what I was hoping it would look like.

And from the production side of the building, that's really the whole point.

Promote. Personalize. Protect.