Signage Printing in Dubai
Sun Studio prints signage panels at our Al Quoz studio in Dubai, for signage companies, fit-out contractors and brands across the UAE. The graphic is printed directly onto the ACP, acrylic, metal or board rather than applied as vinyl over it. That removes the seams, bubbles and lifting edges that applied signage is detailed around, and it holds fine bilingual type cleanly.
We are the printing step, not a sign contractor: fabrication, illumination, installation and permits stay with your signage company or contractor unless we have agreed otherwise for the job. What leaves the studio is printed sign boards for the everyday signage a UAE building needs: wayfinding and directional signs, room and door plates, directory boards, statutory and safety signage, shopfront and mall signs, and brand and reception panels.
Send the sign schedule and we will come back on materials and quantities. One replacement sign or a full building schedule: no minimum order quantity for signage printing.
What we can print on
Signage is an application rather than a material, so the first question is what the sign is made of:
- ACP and aluminium composite: the default panel for most UAE signage. See ACP panel printing for how we print on the panel coating.
- Acrylic: clear, opaque and frosted, for reception and interior signs and for reverse-printed panels.
- Aluminium and stainless steel: plates, fascias and architectural signage.
- Foam board and rigid board: interior, temporary and exhibition signage.
- Glass: manifestation, door signage and reception panels.
- Wood and MDF: interior and hospitality signage.
- Sign faces already cut to shape: routed profiles and letters printed after fabrication.
Printing capabilities
Signage lives or dies on legibility, so most of these are about type and contrast rather than effects:
- Direct UV printing Cured onto the panel, no vinyl over the top.
- Bilingual Arabic and English Fine Arabic type printed at the resolution it needs rather than plotted and weeded.
- White ink As a base so colour and contrast hold on dark, brushed or clear panels.
- Reverse printing on clear acrylic The image seen through the panel, with the print protected behind it.
- Raised and tactile elements Up to 6 mm of relief, where a sign has to be read by touch as well as by eye.
- Large-format panels Fascias and directory boards printed edge to edge with no join, on our IQDEMY EVO 2500 belt flatbed, 2.5 metres wide with no machine limit on length. Send the size of your longest panel and we confirm the fit.
- Batch and schedule work A building's worth of signs printed as a consistent set.
Printed signs or applied vinyl
Most signage in the region is still made by applying printed or cut vinyl to a blank panel. Both approaches work, and they fail differently.
Applied vinyl
Fast, familiar and replaceable: the graphic can be stripped and a new one applied to the same panel, which suits tenancies that change.
The weaknesses are at the edges and at scale. Cut vinyl has to be weeded, which is punishing on fine Arabic script; large panels need more than one drop, so there are seams; and in UAE heat, applied film is under constant stress.
Direct printing
The ink is on the panel, so there is no film to lift at a corner, no seam across a directory board, and no weeding. Fine bilingual type and small point sizes reproduce as drawn.
The trade-off is that the graphic and the panel are now one thing. Changing the sign means a new panel, and the panel has to come to the studio.
Who this is for
Signage work reaches us largely from trade:
- Signage companies: who design, fabricate and install, and use us for the printing step.
- Fit-out contractors: sign packages inside a wider programme.
- Facilities and property managers: wayfinding, directory and statutory signage for a building.
- Developers: signage schedules for new handovers.
- Retail and hospitality: shopfront, in-store and menu signage.
- Offices and clinics: room plates, directional and reception signage.
What to send before we can quote
A sign schedule is the fastest way to a real price:
- The sign schedule: sizes, quantities and types.
- The material: ACP, acrylic, metal or board, and its thickness.
- Whether you are supplying the panels or want them sourced.
- Artwork, with Arabic and English supplied as vector, type outlined.
- Whether panels are cut or routed already.
- Indoor or outdoor, and the mounting method.
- Any tactile or braille requirement: that is a separate build and needs flagging.
- Programme dates: signage is usually near the end of a fit-out.
Not sure which file to send? Our artwork preparation guide covers file formats, vector conversion and what each surface needs.
How it works
Sign schedule, material, quantities and artwork.
We confirm materials, how white and contrast should be handled, and the artwork setup.
For a large schedule we print one sign first so the set is agreed before the rest run.
The schedule is printed as a consistent batch, checked and packed by sign type.
Signage we have printed
Sun Studio work, printed direct onto the panel in Al Quoz. Three jobs are written up in full: the wayfinding and tactile signage for the Museum of the Future, the printed aluminium display panels for Sharjah Heritage Museum and, as the large-panel example, one artwork printed across a set of black ACP panels for an Accor office project.
Technical considerations
Signage is judged on whether it can be read, from the right distance, by everyone who needs to read it. Most of what matters technically follows from that. For sign types, sizes and placement across a building, read what to specify for wayfinding signage before you quote.
What to think about:
The panel is the substrate
Contrast
Arabic typography
Fabricate first
Exterior exposure
Approvals
Consistency across a schedule
Common questions
Do you fabricate and install signs, or only print them?
Can you print Arabic and English on the same sign?
Do you supply the sign panels or should we?
Is there a minimum order for printed signs?
Can you print signs that are already cut to shape?
Is printed signage suitable for outdoors?
Can you do braille and tactile signage?
Do you handle municipality approvals?
Can you match an existing sign?
What artwork do you need?
Have a signage schedule?
Send us the schedule (sizes, quantities, materials) and the artwork. We will come back on the panels, what should be printed with white behind it, and how the set runs as one consistent batch.
Signage Printing projects
Real Sun Studio work involving this service. See the full portfolio.
Technology used
IQDEMY EVO 2500: a belt flatbed 2.5 metres wide, for panel and board signage at scale. See the full printer fleet.
Direct Color Systems UV84: plates, tactile elements and smaller sign components. Its bed is 4 x 8 ft.
Sun Studio belongs to the same Dubai group as PRO TECHnology, which distributes IQDEMY and Direct Color Systems equipment in the Middle East, so read our view of the machines with that in mind.