Direct printing to acrylic or rear mounting?

We have been asked about direct printing on to acrylic / Perspex and whether it is a better method than reverse mounting.

We are going to do are best to give a honest answer, we provide rear mounted Perspex so are we going to be biased... no. The truth is that it all depends on what you are after from your product. Need a acrylic piece for the bathroom or for outside, then go direct. If you demand photographic quality prints then go rear mounted.

Direct Pros:

Can be used outside and in rooms with moisture.
Can have transparent areas where white would normally reside. (This is a nice affect on single coloured walls)

Direct Cons:

The resolution is not as high as with other substrates like paper. They look good but not pure photographic quality as you can not get as wide a colour gamut.
The ink also sits on the surface of the acrylic and can be scratched off fairly easy.

Notes:

Some printers using this method are not able to print white, where an image with white will show as clear patches on the clear acrylic as discussed above. Should you wish to have white and they cannot print with white ink, some producers now get around this problem with techniques such as placing a white panel behind the acrylic while a more satisfactory technique is where a white plastic laminate is placed over the rear.

To produce this type of acrylic product requires the use of flat bed printers, these expensive printers are really developed for the production of signs. This can explain why some prints are low resolution and expensive as the cost of the machinery is passed on to consumers.

Rear Pros:

High resolution photo quality prints can be produced.

Rear Cons:

Unless printing on a clear vynil a transparent affect is not possible.
Not recommended for outdoor projects or rooms with moisture.

Notes:

Rear mounting involves using a adhesive layer, some producers will try to cut costs by using inferior products. This is because true optically crystal clear adhesive, specifically made for layering onto photos with UV protective qualities is expensive. We however feel the cost is worth it.

We use rear mounting purely because most of our work is for photographers.