Textured Art Prints in Dubai: Raised Relief From Your Artwork
How a painting, photograph or digital artwork becomes a print you can feel, printed on rigid panels at our studio in Al Quoz, Dubai.
A textured art print is a print of an artwork with physical relief you can feel, not a flat picture of brushstrokes. Sun Studio Dubai builds that relief in cured UV ink, layer on layer, on rigid panels such as acrylic, aluminium composite and wood, at our studio in Al Quoz. It can reach about 6 mm, and most artwork uses far less.
A photograph records colour, not height, so the relief has to come from a 3D scan, from a height layer someone prepares, or from a new texture designed for the print. That choice decides how close the result comes to the original.
At a glance:
- For: artists, galleries, art consultants, interior designers and hospitality buyers with artwork to produce.
- Surfaces: rigid panels, not paper or stretched canvas.
- Height: up to about 6 mm.
- Quantity: one piece upwards, with no minimum order.
- Sample: AED 105 or AED 150 depending on what it is, taken off the invoice if you go ahead.
- Not claimed: archival or museum-grade life.
You may also see this called raised UV printing, textured UV printing or 2.5D printing. Our guide to raised and 3D embossed UV printing explains how the ink layers are built. This guide covers the next question: how your artwork gets there.
Physical texture, or a photograph of brushstrokes
A flat print of a textured painting is a picture of texture: its shadows were fixed when the photograph was taken. A textured print has height of its own. The National Gallery in London describes raking light as light from one side at an oblique angle: raised paint facing it is lit, and the side facing away casts a shadow. Ink standing off a panel behaves the same way, so its shadows move with the light in the room, most visibly in side light.
| Flat print | Textured print | |
|---|---|---|
| What makes the texture | Shadows and highlights in the image | Cured ink standing above the panel |
| When the light moves | The printed shadows stay put | Highlights and shadows shift |
| Under a fingertip | Smooth | Raised, up to about 6 mm |
| What the file needs | One colour image | A colour image and a height layer |
If the colour image was photographed in strong side light, those shadows are printed into the picture and the relief then adds real ones on top. Shoot the colour image in even, flat light, and keep any raking-light photographs as a separate reference.
Where the texture comes from
There are three routes, and they give different results.
| Route | What happens | What you get | Who does it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3D scan of the original | A scanning system records the colour and the surface height of the painting | The closest match to the real brushwork | A scanning specialist. Send us the data and we confirm whether we can print from it |
| Height layer built from photographs | A designer draws the height, working from your images and raking-light shots | An interpretation of the brushwork, not a copy | Your designer or ours, with the scope agreed first |
| Texture designed for the print | An artist or designer decides what rises: strokes, lines, pattern or grain | A new work, with no original to match | You, your designer or ours |
Scanning exists because colour alone is not enough. Researchers at TU Delft built a system that captures a painting's colour, height and gloss before reproducing it, and Verus Art, which specialises in this work, scans the colour and geometry of each brushstroke. Verus Art is also plain about photographs: texture generated from them is an interpretation, not a direct replica. We take the same position.
So a phone photo of a painting will not give you an exact copy of its surface. It can give a designer a colour reference and a starting point. If you need a general impression rather than a replica, that may be enough, and a sample will show you. Digital artists and photographers have a simpler choice, because there is no original to match.
Mimaki, a maker of UV printers, says smoother relief comes from stacking stepped layers. Expect a soft slope to need more file preparation than a crisp line.
Which artwork suits it, and which does not
Raised texture works best where the surface is part of the idea:
- Abstract work with broad strokes, palette knife marks or plaster-like surfaces.
- Line work, calligraphy and maps, where a raised line reads clearly.
- Pattern and natural texture, such as the honeycomb panel at the top of this page.
- A digital artwork or photograph where you want one part of the image to stand out.
It is a weaker fit in these cases:
- Relief above 6 mm. Heavy impasto has to be scaled down. If the depth itself is the point, it becomes a fabrication job.
- Overhanging strokes. Ink builds upwards, so it cannot leave a gap under a stroke that folds over.
- Hairlines. A tall build rounds slightly at the edges, so very fine lines are the wrong thing to raise.
- Work that depends on its material. Printing can imitate gold leaf, collage or real stone, but it is not that material.
Art and raised work we have printed
None of these is a scanned replica of a painting:
- A honeycomb art panel in raised, glossy relief, one of several raised pieces in our gallery.
- A street map in raised white lines on a dark panel.
- A raised floral monogram on gold acrylic, built in white ink, printed in colour and sealed in clear gloss.
- Luminous Shadow, an Abu Dhabi Art commission in Al Ain by Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh and Hesam Rahmanian. We printed and finished the acrylic with them, in colour rather than raised texture.
Which panel to print on
We build raised artwork on rigid panels, and the panel changes how the same artwork reads.
| Panel | How the print reads | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| White or opaque acrylic | Closest to a conventional artwork, with colour on a neutral ground | Light enough to hang at large sizes. More on our acrylic printing page |
| Clear acrylic | Colour on the front, or reverse printed behind the sheet with raised detail on the front | The wall shows through unless white goes down first. See how acrylic printing works |
| Aluminium composite panel | A flat, stable board with a plain or metallic face | Our ACP printing page covers supply and sizes |
| Aluminium sheet | Without white, the metal becomes the lightest tone and shifts with the light | Raised areas are usually built in white, which hides the metal there. Read how the metal shows through |
| Wood or MDF | Warm. Natural wood can show its grain, or a white base can cover it | Wood moves with humidity and cured ink does not, so keep it indoors and dry. See wood printing |
We do not print these pieces on paper or stretched canvas, in line with our flat photo prints. Cured ink is rigid, and a surface that flexes works against it. Flat UV printing on cloth is a separate job, covered under fabric printing.
You can supply the panel, or ask us to help source it on suitable projects. Cutting to shape is done by your fabricator or our partners.
Where it can hang, and how long it lasts
These prints are made for indoor walls first. Indoors, on a properly prepared surface, a cured UV print is a long-life finish, and a raised build makes that preparation matter more. We do not quote a lifespan in years, and we do not describe these prints as archival or museum-grade. How long a UV print lasts explains what decides it.
Outdoors, sun fades colour over time, so tell us first and we test a sample rather than promise a life. Clean a textured print with a soft, damp cloth and avoid abrasive pads and solvents. The edge of a raised area is the first place a fingernail or a knock has anything to catch.
Large pieces, sets and editions
Our Direct Color Systems UV84 flatbed has a 4 x 8 ft bed, and our IQDEMY EVO 2500 is a belt flatbed 2.5 metres wide with no machine limit on length. Send each panel's width, height and thickness and we confirm the fit before anything moves. Sun Studio belongs to the same Dubai group as PRO TECHnology, which distributes Direct Color Systems and IQDEMY equipment in the Middle East, so read our view of the machines with that in mind.
Height is press time, so a large panel usually carries much less relief than a small one, and suits selected raised areas rather than a whole raised face. A piece too big for one panel is split into one file per panel, set out to meet at each joint, as on our Accor office project. Gradient and raised printing on ACP covers how to specify that.
UV printing needs no tooling, so one piece is a normal order and the same files can print again later. For an edition or a hotel order, keep three things on record: the master files, the panel specification and the approved sample. Print a set in one run, on panels from the same batch where possible. A later reprint may not match exactly, and the approved sample is what you compare it against. Edition numbers, signatures and certificates stay with the artist or gallery.
Interior designers and hospitality buyers usually start from a drawing, so send the room schedule and the fixing method too. Choosing the art, clearing its rights and installation stay with you, your art consultant or your contractor unless we have agreed otherwise. Ask if you need framing. If the brief is a mosaic look rather than brushwork, read about mosaic-effect wall art. For artwork on the wall itself, direct wall printing is a different service.
How to prepare the artwork files
Send what you have. The more of this you can supply, the closer the first sample will be:
- Colour image: the original at full resolution, shot in even light. On WhatsApp, send it as a document so it is not compressed.
- Texture: a separate file or named layer showing what rises, at the same size and position as the colour image.
- Height: which areas are highest, and roughly how high. Most pieces need far less than the 6 mm limit.
- Finish: gloss or matt, across the whole face or only in chosen areas, so a brushstroke can shine against a matt field.
- No texture layer yet: send reference photographs, including one lit from the side.
- Rights: your confirmation that you own the copyright or have permission to reproduce the artwork.
Standard file preparation is included in a print order. Building a texture layer from nothing is design work, so we explain the scope and any cost before we start. File types are covered in our guide to preparing artwork for UV printing.
Approve a sample before the full piece
Texture cannot be judged on a screen or a paper proof. Ask for a section at full size, on the same panel as the final piece, that includes the deepest relief, the smoothest area and the hardest colour. Then:
- Look at it under the lights it will hang in, from where people will stand, and while walking past.
- Compare it with the original, if there is one, in the same light.
- Judge colour and texture separately, because each has its own layer and can be corrected on its own.
- Keep the approved sample as the reference for any reprint.
A sample is charged at AED 105 or AED 150, depending on what it is, and the fee comes off the invoice if you go ahead. It is usually ready in one to three working days once the artwork is approved. For a large or deep section, we confirm the fee and the time first.
What drives the price
We quote each job rather than work from a price list. Every raised layer is another pass, and the area built up matters more than the size of the piece. The panel and its size, white ink, any texture preparation and the quantity move the number too, and the price per piece falls as the quantity rises. What drives a UV printing quote sets out the arithmetic. The run time comes with the quote and counts from artwork approval.
Common questions
Do you sell textured wall art?
Will a textured print pass as the original painting?
Do I need permission to print a painting I own?
Can texture be added to a digital artwork or an AI image?
Is a textured print the same as 3D printing?
Send the artwork, the finished dimensions, the quantity and the finish you want, by WhatsApp or phone on +971 4 346 7422, or by email to info@sunstudio.ae. Sun Studio Dubai has been printing in Al Quoz First since 2011. We will tell you which route suits the piece and what the sample should show.