| Digital Flatbed | | | | (adds color to black) primary colors of light, red, |
| Digital flatbed printers fill the gap between offset | | | | green and blue (RGB). |
| printing and silk screening by providing a way to | | | | Also unlike desktop printers, flatbed printers |
| apply an image to rigid, flat or unevenly surfaced | | | | provide for the application of "spot" colors including |
| objects. The process will print shapes ranging | | | | white (necessary, as the print medium may not |
| from coffee cups and injection-molded acrylic, | | | | be white) and varnish, which many of the printers |
| glass objects, furniture and wooden doors. | | | | can apply as a spot color, a process color or over |
| Commercial printing operations generate the bulk | | | | the entire image. |
| of flatbed-printed materials. | | | | UV-cured inks, as in letterpress and other "fine" |
| | | | printing, also have dimensionality. That is, the ink |
| To use a flatbed printer, the operator places a | | | | dries on the surface of the print media so it rises |
| printing medium (pen, glass, whatever) on the flat | | | | above the surface in a way that lets you can feel |
| bed of the printer, or in a delivery tray that sits | | | | the ink, almost as if it had been hand-painted. |
| on the flat bed. Mechanical locks or a vacuum | | | | Applications |
| secure the printing medium as it slides through the | | | | A short list of applications for flatbed printing |
| printer. If the medium were to slip, the printed | | | | includes retail point of purchase and point of sale |
| image would be out of register (think out of | | | | material, in-store advertising, indoor and outdoor |
| focus) and unusable. On command, the printing | | | | signage (construction, real estate and theatrical |
| medium moves through the printer, passing under | | | | signs, for instance). Additional applications involve |
| the print heads and, in some cases, under a UV | | | | sales promotion materials (pens, money clips, |
| lamp that instantly cures (dries) the ink. | | | | coffee cups and the like), trade show display |
| Ink | | | | panels and signs, special events graphics, interior |
| Digital flatbed printers use the primary | | | | design, product decoration, furniture and fine art |
| "subtractive" (subtracts color from a white base) | | | | (originals printed on a collage, or painting prints |
| ink colors---cyan, magenta, yellow and black | | | | reproduced on mounted and stretched canvass, |
| (CMYK)---as opposed to their smaller desktop | | | | for example). |
| cousins who are based on the visually "additive" | | | | |