Digital Printing - why it is used and what to bear in mind when designing & ordering Digitally Printed Display Panels and Display Stands

Digital printing is the method of choice for people in our industry for several reasons – firstly it is really, really quick, allowing us to produce graphics with a rapid turnaround time. Secondly it is much cheaper than screen or offset printing for doing single jobs, small quantity jobs and jobs where each version is slightly (or significantly) different. It is also a four colour process, and allows for top quality image reproduction, making it perfect for photographic or other detailed images. Furthermore it is great for large format printing and allows highly accurate digital or hard copy proofing without incurring much cost.

One thing to be considered with digital printing however, especially when used for display stand panels and the like, is that an exact colour match cannot be guaranteed unless all the material is printed at the same time. This means that ‘drop-in’ or replacement panels and new stands will not always match exactly the older panels or stands. However this should not deter marketers from using multiple and interchangeable panels with their stands, as this add so much functionality and value to their equipment – imagine a 5 panel pop up display stand (as is typically used at exhibitions and as a conference backdrop) with a corporate logo and background on the majority of the stand, with just one of the strips carrying product or event-specific information on the same background. This panel can be replaced at different events or when promoting different products so that the information is customised and targeted but the overall look is consistent and congruous. As just one new panel is needed each time, the cost is kept to a minimum, and the customer is getting maximum use from their Pop Up display stand. This is a highly cost-effective and efficient way to use your display equipment, but due to the digital printing process it is best to plan ahead and get the alternate panels or coordinating stands printed at the same time to ensure they will match. Another option is to use a contrasting colour for the panel which will need to be replaced, so that colour match will not be an issue. It is also worth bearing in mind that colour match tends to be more of an issue with strong colours.

You can see images of this type of stand on our curved pop up display stands page – the 7^th, 8^th, 11^th and 16^th stands shown here would work best with ‘drop-in’ panels - but this technique would work equally well with flat pop up stands of any size as well as Designline aluminium display stands.