Posted July 17, 2019
It helps national parks, botanical gardens, zoos, and comparable places that provide educational material for visitors if their signage is nicely presented. Obviously the design style and colors that are featured are key factors: light colored text on light colored background is the most common design disaster. Dark colored text on dark background color is an equally common failure in graphic design.
But once the design and layout are nicely done it helps to print on appropriate material. And, it definitely helps to have a good ink. For example, if you use a cheap ink made in a low-bid factory the colors on your sign or info-poster will fade within a few months. Yet I have photographs 1 meter high printed with pigment water-based inks on an HP DesignJet printer and others on a ColorSpan printer. These prints have lasted over 12 years in the sun of Guatemala, Central America.
In order to learn which inks are good, the team of FLAAR-REPORTS visits ink factories around the world. This year we were flown to two different continents to study ink, most recently to India. We visited the A.T. Inks factories and more than four print shops using A.T. Inks on glass, on metal, on textiles.
Since our Neotropical plant and animal research team (of FLAAR-Mesoamerica) is working in Parque Nacional Yaxha Nakum Naranjo (Peten, Guatemala), we have been studying the park signage here. Our goal is to utilize our 20 years of experience in the world of wide-format inkjet printing to develop park signs that last longer (since rather obviously the sun in the rain forests of Guatemala is rather strong). So lots of FLAAR-REPORTS are in preparation about A.T. Inks, especially their ink for UV-LED curing printers and their ink for wide-format inkjet textile printers. Every month we will have a fresh new research report for you.