Print Durability in Large Format Printing

Durability and display permanence are important qualities when choosing a large format printing vendor.  A large format printer’s ability to provide print durability is primarily a function of the investment they have made in state-of-the-art printing equipment.

For example, Discount Displays is a leading large format printer that has invested heavily in the latest printing technology from industry leader HP.  According to HP:

Durability generally relates to how well the colorant binds to the print medium and the resistance of the print medium to deterioration under conditions of use.  Colorant durability can be characterized by the resistance of a printed image to water and to rubbing, abrasion, and smearing when the print is cleaned with wipes and common chemicals (especially important for vehicle graphics).  Durability also considers resistance of the image to cracking as the print is bent, folded, or stretched.  

Display permanence, sometimes called fade resistance or lightfastness, characterizes the change in color and optical density of the image under exposure to light, particularly sunlight and sources of ultraviolet (UV) light.  Display permanence measures the time required for colors to change by a specified amount under standardized conditions such as display in-window, outdoors, “indoors behind glass away from direct sunlight”, etc.  These are reference conditions used for comparative purposes between ink technologies and between specific inks on specific media within a technology.  Display permanence is often specified with and without lamination for prints displayed in direct sunlight in-window or outdoors.  

HP designs and tests all of its ink and large-format media combinations for optimal durability, realizing that different applications require different test requirements: 

Indoor – home and office display: A typical application example is HP photo prints, tested to ensure image permanence under common indoor lighting and environmental conditions. HP uses both state-of-the-art internal labs (HP’s Image Permanence Lab) and Wilhelm Imaging Research (WIR) to produce these results.

Indoor – commercial in-window display: Often HP prints are displayed in a window receiving partial or direct sunlight likely to increase the degree and rate of image fading. HP Image Permanence Lab testing accounts for this difference from home and office conditions with methodologies designed specifically for in-window display conditions.

Outdoor display: Signs, banners, billboards, and other outdoor applications are often subjected to harsher environmental factors than typical indoor and in-window display prints. The HP Image Permanence Lab tests according to industry-leading standards, and exposes print samples in real-life conditions at multiple test sites to account for a range of environmental conditions including temperature, humidity, light and dark, and spray. 

Water resistance: Prints can be damaged when exposed to water or by handling when wet. However, many Original HP ink and media combinations produce high-quality, water-resistant prints. HP tests water resistance performance characteristics most important to customers, using ISO and internally developed tests, and considers prints which pass the following tests to be water resistant: ISO Standing Water, Water Spray, Water Drip, and Wet Smudge.

Qualified lamination solutions: While specific HP ink and media combinations are designed to provide good overall durability and scratch resistance, many customers apply laminates to further protect the surface of valuable prints. HP has developed excellent partnerships and qualification programs for film as well as liquid laminates to ensure that the final, finished print meets the demands of the customer.