Beyond Paper: Opportunities in Specialty Printing

When printing acrylics, having a clean room is essential to avoid dust particles interfering with the required optical adhesion. | Credit: Bay Photo Lab/Luke Tyree

Along with the huge wedding market, Copeland notes the seasonal opportunities for specialty and promo product printing, such as graduations and holidays — also a lucrative market for lasers with items like Christmas ornaments. These possibilities are especially evident in what Copeland calls the “exploding Etsy market.” “A lot of the stuff on Etsy is huge because direct-to-substrate works on stuff that’s handmade,” he adds. “You can make [a product] look like you made it by hand when you do it with a UV printer just by being creative with Photoshop.”