As we can see the “eco” prefix did not came from nowhere. It is worth to mention that eco solvent is not the only eco-friendly technology of printing. There is also LATEX and UV – these we will discuss soon in the separate article.

The hard solvent finds still very wide usage. Why? First of all it is cheaper. But to be honest, it also has some other properties that place it over all the other methods of image transfering. Most certainly it is not just a lower cost. Every time we expose the print is in more difficult environment, in extreme weather conditions or when it is in danger of suffering mechanical damage. The solvent method offers bigger resistance of the print.

It is an indisputable value. To be honest, however – how often we expose our prints to such an unfriendly condition for long periods of time? Secondly – how often do we expect an advertising to last for years? Of course there are situations like this, but more often we expect the add to last just for the duration of the particular campaign. Like always the knowledge about expectations for the job is essential.  It can give a hint what method is the best to deliver the best effect.

The choices like this are everyday decisions made in print houses across the globe. The fortunate side of it that at least the printing media are less problematic. In Ikonos we produce printing media to be as flexible as possible when it comes to printing technologies. Most of our products are printable with eco, mild, hard solvent just as well as with latex, screen or UV.