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Digital Ink Comparisons for Textiles

| Arianna Valentini

This in excerpt from an SGIA article for more on the article you can download the file here: digitalink_0706. It also contains a great glossary of terms too!!

Ink Type Characteristics
UV Ink
  • More versatile in terms of what they can be printed on, rigid substrates, such as board product, plastic, glass, wood, ceramics and metal.
  • Can help achieve fast production because there is no wait time for prints to dry.
  • Save on production costs and media versatility despite having up front equipment costs that are higher than other digital printers.
  • Avoid continual cleaning and purging of the print head to remove insoluble products.
 Solvent Ink
  • Commonly regarded as the most economical inks for digital printing today, in terms of equipment costs and maintenance expenses.
  • Produce highly durable outdoor prints.
  • Media is less costly than coated media for aqueous inks.
  • Well suited to printing on soft and compatible flexible materials.
  • They can be used on low-cost, uncoated materials, such as self-adhesive vinyl, fabrics and scrim banner materials.
 Mild Solvent Ink
  • Often dubbed “mild,” “low-odor” and “eco-solvents” because they are more economical than conventional solvent inks.
  • Tend to have a low odor during production.
  Aqueous or Water-based Inks
  • Primarily derived from water, 70 to 90 percent, with a small amount of a milder solvent so that the ink will adhere to the medium.
  • Mostly used for retail POP for short-term outdoor prints, long- lasting indoor prints and indoor backlit materials.
  • Have a relatively clean handling process.
“Bio” or vegetable-based inks
  • Made with vegetable oil rather than petroleum oil. The vegetable source, coming from soy, linseed or corn, to make ethanol uses fewer non-renewable sources such as petroleum. However, some conventional solvent is typically used as well.
  • Adhere to a wide range of uncoated media.
    Deliver nearly the same durability as compared with conventional solvent inks.

Extensis Portfolio vs. Xinet

| Arianna Valentini

Using both Portfolio and Xinet, in Digital Asset Management is interesting to reflect upon the ways that they are different representations of a DAM system.

Each DAM system varies in many different ways; the first way it varies is in the types of users Portfolio and Xinet providers for. Having used Portfolio first, I feel that this system is more aimed towards small or middle-sized companies. However it is expandable into larger companies such as the London Museum. Xinet, when initially opening it gives the impression of a larger system. It is more expansive and allows for use within a larger company.

In terms of metadata, the Xinet portfolio requires you to already add metadata prior to uploading to the server. Portfolio’s method of drag and drop metadata seems to me to be more user friendly and allows for easier adjustments to metadata. I understand why Xinet limits the addition of metadata because by making metadata more easily accessible like in Portfolio, you can run into standards problems. This also helps to control the vocabulary better than in portfolio, for this reason I believe that Xinet is more effective.

The interfaces are similar in that they both allow for preview icons with images and the option to display metadata next to each image or file. Portfolio’s interface is a lot cleaner and has a better navigation bar. I like that the navigation is easy to view as well as any action buttons. The overall aesthetic of Portfolio is reminiscent of a website and has amore stylized look to it. Xinet has a very plain interface and can sometimes be hard to navigate. I also don’t like the overall look of the Xinet it is very plain and the control buttons are very hard to see.

When controlling access to files in each system I feel that Xinet offers more security because you are allowed to make multiple user logins and expiration dates. Portfolio lacks this and I feel it would be a nice addition to the software. I also prefer the way you can access originals in Xinet through a server. I feel that this allows for more security when controlling original asset changes. I’m not aware that this is allowed in Portfolio. I wish Portfolio had the drag and drop from their website like Xinet, I would really like to see this feature added as well.

While I prefer the idea of Xinet, the installation process and set up is very long and labor intensive. For this reason I feel Portfolio is the better choice when it comes to more easily implementing it within a company. Also Portfolio is considerably cheaper than Xinet. I think that this will really play a part in which DAM system a person would chose for their company.