One of the lovely surprises that many digital printers realize when printing on wallcovering is the fact that texture greatly affects the sheen of a print, and that sheen greatly affects perceived color. Although this is highly obvious when using ‘slower drying’ solvent inks, it can also be seen on UV prints as well.
Vinyl wallcovering, whether 15 oz, or 20oz thickness, will almost always have a texture. These textures are added through embossing rolls during the calendering, or manufacturing process. In general wallcovering applications- textures can range from paint strokes, to basket weaves, to dot patterns. At a meager cost of $10k-$20k, some large volume wallcovering buyers can have their own logo embossed into their textured wallcovering.
The nooks and crannies and ‘valleys’, provide places for ink to hide. The sometimes undercoated ‘hills’ of a texture provide underprinted areas that are often highly reflective.
There are two ways that this can be manifest in a print
- Textures with Large Elements – (big valleys, big hills) – although possibly annoyingly shiny on the hills, the valleys offer a deep rich color that comes through. This can be an attractive feature if your texture is brush strokes.
- Textures with small elements – (little valleys, little hills) – the size of the varied facets of the wallcovering blend together to the eye, and appear to dull the color of the image. This can be a great effect if you have a low key, low contrast image that does not require tight color matching, but can be devestating if you are looking for deep blacks, and vibrant colors. These textures are often called ‘suedes’, or to a lesser degree ‘stipples’.