ImagesMagUK_Digital_Edition_March_2018

Lynne does a lot of printing for funeral parlours using the Reveal system www.images-magazine.com MARCH 2018 images 81 DIGITAL PRINTING Lynne Traynor: Reveal Print Perfect System, from Dye Sublimation Supplies Lynne Traynor Tell us a bit about your business I don’t have a website, everything is word of mouth. People will ask me to print a picture on a phone-case, or T-shirts, cups, keyrings – anything that can be personalised. I’m busy: I print for local funeral parlours, scaffolding companies, taxi companies, family, friends... I work at a hotel as well, so I do a lot of work for them like putting names on pens for conferences. The other day a guest had a little dog, and I ended up printing a dog collar for them – just little things like that. What digital printing system do you use? How much did it cost? I started doing dye sublimation three years ago. I bought a Ricoh 3110 from Dye Sublimation Supplies, and then at the beginning of December I upgraded to the Reveal System. It means I can now print onto anything, whereas before it was only polyester or things with a special coating. With Reveal, I can print onto cotton. The Reveal system, including the heat press, cost £2,500. What’s it like to use? You just do the design on the computer, send it to the printer, the printer prints out a reverse image which is then laid down on whatever you’re printing, and then you run it through the heat press. What other systems, if any, did you look at before purchasing this one? This has only just hit the market. Adam [from Dye Sublimation Supplies] spoke to me about it. I went up there, he showed me how to work it, and I was sold. What do you think are its main advantages? The best thing about it is being able to print onto cotton. Cotton products are more available than polyesters. Is there anything you’d like to see in an upgrade or don’t particularly like about it? No, it’s great. Do you have any tips on how to get the most out of it? You need know what you’re doing with a graphics programme, that’s the key. What is it used for – what size runs and type of work? One-offs and also bigger orders: my dad has a taxi business in Lancaster so I print for a lot of his customers, as well as other local business, including a couple of funeral parlours. I print memory books, candles, pendants, keyrings and things like that with pictures of the deceased, plus umbrellas for the funeral parlours to advertise their business. What other machines do you have? I still use the Ricoh for some smaller jobs as it’s A4 size; the new one is A3. I have two heat presses: a Geo Knight DK20S that came with the new machine, and a Stahls’ one that I bought with the Ricoh. What would be your advice to others thinking of buying a digital printing system? I think they’ve got to go for it, and get the Reveal, definitely. It’s growing as well: at the moment you can print on light cottons, but in the next couple of weeks there’ll be a paper that will allow you to print white on black, and then in April, I think, you’ll be able to print full colour on black.