Black Color
2008
How Can I Get The Best Black Colors In My Backlit Film?
Customers often ask, which type of backlit film will yield the best black color? Or, they often ask in terms of, how black is Duratrans?
First, allow me to clarify Blue River Digital's definition of "Duratrans." To many, the term "duratrans" refers to any backlit graphic film that can be imaged with color artwork. This is partially accurate, and may be useful in lay conversation.
For purposes of the question about blacks, I would like to clarify that when a customer orders Duratrans backlit film from Blue River Digital, they're getting a photographic film that is optically exposed (laser) and chemically developed, similar to old-school photographic film. Some of the advantages of this process include improved color saturation and resolution, over the competing "inkjet" (non-photographic) process, which we also offer as "Economy Inkjet."
As a chemically-developed film, when you image part of a Duratrans as black, the film is fully emulsified at the black point (for those in photography, the black point has a very high D-max in the 3.7 range). The emulsion simply blocks any light that would pass through. The result is a black similar to a gloss automotive paint, in depth and richness. Mathematically, there is still a bit of light that makes it through even the emulsion, but Duratrans is the process of choice for all high-end commercial and fine art backlit graphics, because of the superior contrast and saturation. Black-accented artwork on Duratrans is very striking and appealing because of this.
To my knowledge there is actually only one, hand-crafted process commercially available for backlit graphics that can compete with Duratrans for black opacity, and it's got other limitations, not the least of which is price.
As for the Economy Inkjet backlit product, it is inferior to Duratrans when it comes to blacks for the simple reason that black ink is not fully opaque, as is the emulsion coating on a Duratrans. The properties of ink that require it to be viscous and transmissive work against the opacity vector to result in a somewhat-compromised blackness with all backlit inkjet films (regardless of what the fabricator may say), noticeable mostly in solid black areas, especially if they're large.
Hopefully this will help with the decision process for you, in evaluating backlit film alternatives
About the Author
David Cole, owner and founder of Blue River Digital Inc. based in California, brings 30 years' experience in the digital graphics and display industries to his active role as Product Manager for backlit display lightboxes and large format duratrans backlit graphics.
Black is the Color Ireland
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