Hewlett-Packard introduced the HP Deskjet in 1988. It was the first successful commercial application of inkjet printing.

During the Stone Age, man invented stone tools and learned to use fire. The Bronze Age saw the invention of the wheel, writing and agriculture. Tools and weapons became more sophisticated during the Iron Age and man learned to domesticate and ride horses. Medieval and Renaissance eras saw huge leaps in science, mathematics and the arts—not to mention warfare with the emergence of sailing ships, armor and gunpowder. This fateful era also saw the invention of the printing press in 1440, by the German Johannes Gutenberg. 

 

EARLY MODERN TIMES

With the Industrial Revolution came the introduction of factories, steamships, railroads and electricity. Technology made rapid advances during the two World Wars. Cars, airplanes, radios, submarines, telephones, atomic bombs and modern medicine all came of age during this period. Now we are in the Modern Era—with nuclear energy, computers, organ transplants and rockets to the moon. 

 

Office copiers using toner technology have been around since the mid-1970s, as you can see from this photo showing off a large Xerox unit.

The sign business skipped most of these ages. Early man chipped messages into rocks. Medieval artisans laboriously hand-painted artful advertising boards. But then the signage technology stopped. Until 30 years ago that was pretty much still the state-of-the-art for outdoor signage. And many would argue that it was not necessarily a bad thing. Sign making was a respected art form that required many years of ardent study and practice to achieve proficiency.

 

DIGITAL REVOLUTION

But in November 1982, our cozy little world was forever changed. Gerber Scientific Inc. ushered in the digital revolution when it unleashed the Signmaker III, a device for using a computer interface to cut letters and graphics out of adhesive-backed vinyl. This innocuous looking little blue box completely altered the cloistered world of the sign painter. Some viewed it with distrust, but many embraced its labor-saving values and consistently shaped letters. Whether you loved it or hated it, though, everyone had to admit that the sign world was now a different place. The medieval traditions had been suddenly thrust into the modern era and there was no looking back.

 

Before inkjet came into its own, electrostatic printers using toner-based inks were king of the wide format arena. 3M’s Scotchprint branded electrostatic printers produced extremely nice prints at blazing speeds. The problem was that they only printed onto transfer paper and required transfer onto the substrate surface.

Another excellent e-stat printer was the RasterGraphics 5442, which was introduced in 1994.

It took another decade for the next big step in the modernity revolution for sign painters. Inkjet printing was pioneered by Siemens in 1976, although it didn’t come into common usage until the HP Deskjet in 1988. But the technology was soon to become an industry standard for the sign industry as well. In 1991, Encad introduced the NovaJet I, the first full-color, large-format digital printer. It only printed onto paper. The inks were fugitive and faded rapidly. They were pointless for signage, but they were perfect for trade show displays and P.O.P. printing. Then, in 1993, LaserMaster and HP introduced higher resolution, faster printers that raised the bar for quality. Encad countered in 1995 with 50" width (previous maximum had been 36" material), along with bulk ink and take-up rollers. This allowed printing to run overnight unattended.

 

LANDMARK IMPROVEMENTS

For me, a big landmark introduction for the sign industry was the introduction in 1996 of pigmented inks by DuPont. Unlike the early dye-based inks, pigmented inks were fade and water resistant. Coupled with new substrates like adhesive backed vinyl, film and canvas, these products were now invaluable for the modern sign shop.

 

Over the years, many improvements have been made in the digital printing industry. Printing speeds certainly improved—from averages of 30 to 90 square foot an hour range in 1999, to today’s printers, many of which can produce high quality prints at more than 2,000 square feet an hour. Resolutions have also risen—from 100 dpi to 2,800 dpi and higher. Early problems, like banding, dropout and head clogging, are largely resolved.

 

Other technologies, most notably electrostatic printers, came and went out of fashion, but inkjet endured. Pigmented inks were followed by solvent inks. The early ink types required specially coated media for the inks to adhere to, but solvent inks stick to many uncoated substrates, such adhesive vinyls, banners and fabrics. This, along with new lower ink prices, greatly reduced operating costs. But solvent inks have other problems relating to their noxious chemicals and they were soon replaced with mild solvent inks. These didn’t bond quite as well to uncoated substrates but were much easier and less toxic to use.

 

In 1991 Encad introduced the NovaJet I, the first full-color, large format digital inkjet printer. Subsequent iterations, such as the venerable NovaJet 750 shown, offered improved speed, resolution and color quality. These water-based units were ubiquitous in the mid- to late 1990s.

The Albatross, an early solvent printer from Mutoh—who up until that time had been known as an OEM manufacturer—was an effective product, but needed lots of ventilation.

LATEST ITERATIONS

UV curable inks are the latest iteration of this technology. They come with ink formulations that allow them to truly stick to almost any material. Printers today have the option of imaging directly onto rigid substrates like plastic, wood and metal, or printing onto rolled materials. 

 

Of course everything comes with a price tag. Early Encads were priced around $6,000—a very reasonable price for leading edge technology even by 1991 standards. And there are still very reasonably priced wide-format printers on the market, some as low as $3,000. But you can also go over a million dollars if you want the full-meal-deal. The market offers something for everyone, from basement hobbyists to mega print shops. Now, few sign shops of any size would even consider operating without digital assistance of some sort.

 

While the rest of the world spent thousands of years evolving and developing, the sign industry remained a quiet little group of traditional craftsmen until they were suddenly catapulted into the modern age with unprecedented speed. Whatever your thoughts on the topic, time never moves backwards. The digital age is here to stay, but probably not for as long as the brush and paint era. Some new technology will no doubt dazzle us into the next era before we know it.