By signcraft
Posted on Saturday, December 9th, 2023
Highway signs take great advantage of the power of reflective film for lettering and graphics, but ironically relatively few commercial signs do. As daylight turns to darkness, the visibility of most non-illuminated signs disappears as well.
Some sign companies, though, take advantage of reflective film to make signs as visible at night as they are during the day. At RT Signs, Steinbach, Manitoba, Canada, they often upsell clients to reflective film to help them get additional nighttime exposure.
“We’re pushing this lately because it adds a lot of value to a sign,” says Travis Toews of RT Signs. “It’s almost like having an illuminated sign because the lettering lights right up in the headlights. Why shouldn’t the sign be as visible at night as it is during the day?”
Printing on reflective
There are two common types of reflective film, prismatic and glass bead. Prismatic film is typically used on highway signs because of it’s higher reflectivity. While glass bead media is still reflective, it doesn’t match the reflectivity of prismatic film.
“We prefer using prismatic film for that reason,” Travis says. “We found a durable prismatic media, but it wasn’t practical to print on our latex printer. During the latex printing process, the media is heated, so you can get bubbles and wrinkles. If you set the heaters too low to prevent this, the ink doesn’t dry properly.
“Prismatic film works better on our solvent printer, but the ink dries very slowly. You have to handle it carefully until it is completely dry or you will damage the print. So that didn’t work that well either.
“The solution we found is to print the graphics on clear media and apply that to a base of prismatic reflective media. That’s working well. It adds a layer over the reflective, but it still looks very good. People comment that it almost looks like a backlit sign.”
Up goes the value
When the sign’s message can be read as easy at night as it can during the day, the value of that sign goes way up. As the sign lights up in headlights of the viewer’s vehicle, it’s somewhat of a surprise—and that makes it even more likely to be read.
“We use it on a lot of billboards that are along the side roads outside of town,” says Travis. “We also do a lot of agricultural signs that are in rural areas. Without supplemental lighting, the sign wouldn’t be seen after dark. Reflective film changes that completely. The sign is suddenly more visible at night than it was during the day.”
“You really need a nighttime photo to appreciate the impact of prismatic reflective film,” Travis says, “but it’s tricky to photograph at night. A professional photographer would get better results with that, but here’s how the sign looks during the day.”
