Today’s expanded gamut ultraviolet (UV) inks can be used for a variety of signage and branding applications. Images courtesy Roland DGA
By Ginny Mumm
With the ability to print directly on almost any surface, ultraviolet (UV) LED printers have become increasingly popular for a variety of consumer, corporate, and industrial applications. This has led to some remarkable advances in printing technology and software products in recent years. As a result, the global market size for UV LED printers is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.5 per cent from 2023 to 2030, and reach US$758.7 million (C$1 billion) by 2030.1
The introduction of advanced flatbed, hybrid, and roll-to-roll UV printers; updated raster image processor (RIP) software; and new, wider ink colour gamuts are major contributors to this growth in the market. To find out more, we spoke with Jay Roberts, UV printer product manager at Roland DGA, about how print service providers (PSPs) can leverage new colour gamuts and technology to improve their UV-printed offerings for clients.
How have colour gamuts expanded over the past few years? What factors drove this expansion?
Jay Roberts (JR): The push for expanded colour gamuts came from both manufacturers and end users. The biggest driving factor is the desire to hit corporate colours more accurately. While everyone wants to be able to produce vibrant, fun, and fully saturated colour that pops, it’s also critical to be able to accurately print brand or Pantone colours for corporate clients. The more of those targeted colours you can hit, the better you are as a printing company, and the better the quality of products end users can provide for their clients.
The ink colour technology that has been developed over the last 10 years for the eco-solvent market—which includes green, orange, and light cyan inks—has been translated to inks for UV machines. Red inks have also been introduced to enhance the available colour space, and bringing out specific colours helps increase the gamut in other areas.
What are the benefits of having these expanded gamuts for PSPs and other industries?
Raster image processor (RIP) programs help printers keep their UV colour output consistent across a variety of substrates.
JR: The drive for brand colour matching started almost 50 years ago, with what was then called “Coca-Cola red.” Now, it’s grown to match “Home Depot orange,” “Microsoft blue,” and a whole host of other corporate hues. From offset to banners to point-of-purchase (POP) displays, the greater your ability to hit those colours across a variety of platforms, the better you can serve your clients’ range of print needs.
Today’s expansions in colour gamuts allow users to target a larger colour space, with all the vibrant and photographic elements that come with it. For instance, specific inks can target up to 89 per cent of Pantone colours, which is a big jump up from previously being able to target 55 to 60 per cent. The increased ability to target many more Pantone colours represents a genuine improvement in PSPs’ capacity to provide outstanding colour output.
Tell us about the recent evolution of inks for the UV market.
JR: When people talk about colour matching, they’re typically aiming to match something originally printed on another platform, perhaps months or even years ago. They want their output to look perfect to the person who is buying the job. The evolution of inks has really increased the ability for PSPs to achieve a “shared visual appearance” between different printing platforms.
An expanded gamut with orange and red ink was developed over time and with extreme precision. The result is an inkset that is very effective at achieving a shared visual appearance, with Delta Es (a measure of how much a displayed colour differs from its input colour) of under two—a level of difference which is almost indistinguishable.
