When it comes to purchasing a custom printed poster from your own design what are the main differences between the papers that you can choose from. This article is designed to help you select the best option in order to display your poster design at its best.
While many purchase posters off the shelf a large number of people are designing their own posters with programs such as Adobe Photoshop, In-Design, or even Microsoft PowerPoint and having them printed to custom size. Custom printed posters can be quite expensive so obviously those purchasing them will want to ensure they get the best quality print for their money.
The first thing to determine is which type of paper the poster is going to be printed on. The most common types are matt papers, satin & gloss photo papers, each of these papers have their own unique qualities but all are suitable for poster printing.
Matt Poster Papers are best used where certain lighting conditions can affect the view of the poster as they do not reflect much light making the posters viewable from all different angles. They have quite a large colour gamut meaning that the printed colours will be a very good match to the screen colours that were used when designing the poster.
Gloss Poster Papers are ideal for that photographic look and feel. They are the perfect choice for designs such as photo collages or large photo prints. They have a much large colour gamut than matt papers and are able to produce stunning photo quality prints with the colours being an extremely close match to the screen colours. Due to the glossy finish they can suffer from light reflection but this can usually be decreased by positioning the poster where the lighting does not shine directly onto it causing glare.
Satin Poster Papers are a semi-gloss and have a larger colour gamut than the matt papers but not as large as the gloss so the colours will not be so vibrant. They tend to have a slightly textured appearance which helps to reduce light reflection whilst still having that photographic look. This makes them a better choice than the gloss if the posters are going to be displayed in brightly lit rooms.
Another thing to consider is the weight of the papers which is measured in gsm (grams per square metre). Ideally matt posters should be printed on at least 180gsm as this will ensure that the poster remains in good condition especially if it will be put away and re-used from time to time, with the gloss or satin papers 200gsm or above is ideal.
To ensure that the poster remains in perfect condition consider having it encapsulated (laminated font and back) as this will help stop fading and creasing.
You may also want to check what inks are being used to print the poster. Always try to use a printing company that uses at least 8 ink colourants in their printers as they provide a much greater range of colours than printer using just 4 inks. Printers using 8 inks or more are able to produce true photographic quality at up to 2400dpi.
I mentioned above about the printed colours matching the screen colours. To ensure that the printed colours do match your screen always use the "Proof Colour" option in programs such as Adobe Photoshop or similar. The proofing option should be set to the type of printer that the poster will be printed on, for example it should be set to CMYK (swop) for printing onto commercial CMYK printers or set to Adobe RGB or sRGB if being printed onto an RGB photo printer. RGB is the best choice as it has a much larger colour gamut than CMYK. Also if it is possible ask the printing company for the icc profile used for their particular ink and paper settings as this would provide an even closer screen to print match. This is a small file that simulates the printer inks and papers of the printer being used to print the poster.
A last suggestion is to always compare poster printing companies, check which printers and papers they use and also view their customer reviews, if they have lots of happy customers it's likely that you will be one too.
