Ceramic & Tile Printing in Dubai

Sun Studio prints artwork directly onto ceramic and porcelain tiles at our Al Quoz studio. The image goes onto the finished tile you supply, which means any tile can become a custom tile — one design, a repeating pattern, or a single image spread across a whole wall of them.

It suits kitchen and pantry splashbacks, bathroom and powder-room feature walls, decorative mosaics and majlis panels, hospitality interiors and heritage-style pattern work across the UAE.

What we can print

The glaze is the surface we print on, so its finish matters more than whether the tile is ceramic or porcelain:

• Glazed ceramic tile — the common case, and generally a good ground.
• Porcelain tile — denser and often harder-glazed, worth a test.
• Matte and honed glazes — usually the easier surface, because a matte finish gives ink more to hold to than a high gloss.
• Gloss glazes — printable, and the case where preparation matters most.
• Unglazed and biscuit tile — porous, which changes how colour reads.
• Mosaic sheets and small formats — printed as a set so a pattern runs across the sheet.
• Large-format tiles and slabs — where one image covers a whole panel rather than repeating.

Printing capabilities

What is available depends on the tile and where it is going:

• Direct UV printing — cured onto the glaze, nothing laminated over it.
• White ink base — for colour to read true on a dark, coloured or strongly patterned tile.
• Full-colour artwork — photographic images, Islamic geometric pattern, marble and cement-tile effects.
• Artwork across a set — one image split over many tiles, registered so it lines up once laid.
• Raised and textured effects — ink built up so a pattern can be felt.
• Varnish — gloss or matte over selected areas.
• Sample tiles — printed on your actual tile before a batch is committed. Strongly recommended here.

Printed tiles or kiln-fired decoration

This is the distinction worth understanding before printed tile goes into a specification, because the two are often described the same way and behave very differently.

Kiln-fired ceramic decoration

Ceramic inks containing glass frit are applied and the tile is fired, so the decoration fuses into the glaze and becomes part of it. That is how patterned tile is manufactured, and it is what survives floors, heavy abrasion and outdoor exposure.

It happens at the tile factory, in volume, with tooling — which is why it is not a route for fifty tiles of your own design.

Direct UV printing onto the glaze

What we do is print onto the finished, fired tile. The ink is a cured layer sitting on the glaze rather than fused into it.

That is what makes short runs, one-offs and bespoke patterns possible at all. The trade-off is honest and important: a surface layer is not a fired glaze, so this belongs on walls, splashbacks and decorative panels rather than on floors or anywhere facing heavy abrasion. If your project needs a printed floor tile, fired decoration from the manufacturer is the right specification.

Who this is for

Tile work reaches us from:

• Interior designers — bespoke pattern where a stock tile does not exist.
• Fit-out contractors — feature walls and splashback packages.
• Kitchen and bathroom companies — splashbacks matched to a scheme.
• Hospitality — restaurants, cafés and hotels wanting a wall that is theirs alone.
• Homeowners and villa projects — majlis panels, feature walls and heritage pattern work.
• Artists and studios — short-run decorative tile.

What to send before we can quote

Tile is one of the services where a physical sample is worth more than a description:

• A sample tile if at all possible — the glaze is the deciding factor and it is easier to test than to describe.
• Tile size and thickness.
• Ceramic or porcelain, and gloss, matte or honed glaze.
• Quantity, and whether the artwork repeats per tile or runs across a set.
• Where it is being installed — wall, splashback, floor, wet area, outdoors.
• The artwork, and the layout if it spans several tiles.
• Cleaning regime — a kitchen splashback wiped with degreaser is a harder ask than a decorative panel.

How it works

Printed tiles we have produced

Sun Studio work, printed direct onto the tile in Al Quoz.

Technical considerations

A fired glaze is a sheet of glass. It is hard, non-porous and often very smooth, which puts tile in the same family of problems as glass rather than anywhere near board or timber.

What decides the result:

• The glaze finish — a matte or honed glaze gives ink more to hold to than a high gloss. Gloss tile is printable, but it is the case that most often needs preparation.
• Pre-treatment — an adhesion promoter suited to glass and ceramic is used where the glaze calls for it, which is a judgement made per tile rather than a blanket step.
• Where it is installed — this is the important one. A cured surface layer is not a fired glaze, so printed tile belongs on walls and decorative panels, not on floors or anywhere with heavy abrasion.
• Cleaning — abrasive pads and aggressive chemicals act on the print, not on the glaze underneath. Splashbacks near a hob are worth discussing.
• Wet areas — steam and standing water raise the bar. Tell us if the tile is going into a shower rather than onto a feature wall.
• Batch variation — tiles from different production batches vary in glaze and colour. Send them all from one batch if the artwork spans a set.
• Registration across tiles — an image running over many tiles has to account for grout lines, so the layout is set out before printing and the tiles are packed in laying order.

Common questions

Have tiles to print?

Send us the tile size, the quantity, where it is being installed and the artwork — and a sample tile if you can get one to us. We will print a test, confirm the glaze takes it, and tell you what the batch will take.

Technology used

Direct Color Systems UV84 — the flatbed used for tile and hard-surface work. See the full printer fleet.