(Read the official press release here.)

Printed signage, especially of the soft variety, has been a hot and growing application area in wide-format graphics for the better part of the last decade—and has remained so even in 2020 (which is easily the worst part of the last decade...). HP’s Latex series (long solely roll-to-roll but recently including a flatbed model) has proven to be an extremely flexible printer/ink technology for printing on a wide variety of substrates, from vinyls for vehicle graphics to fabrics and textiles for banners and signage. And while HP is virtually synonymous with “Latex,” they’re not the only player in that market; Ricoh and Mimaki also have lowercase-l latex units. (Chemically speaking, a “latex” is—according to the all-knowing Wikipedia—simply “a stable dispersion [emulsion] of polymer microparticles in water.” This is why latex inks have really nothing to do with latex rubber such as that used in gloves, and thus are not a problem for anyone with a latex allergy.)

At any rate, solvent inks remain the workhorse of the industry, and even though newer “eco-solvent” inks are a bit more user- and eco-friendly, more sustainable options are always welcome. And while dye-sublimation is great for textiles, not everyone wants to muck about with heat presses/calenders, transfer paper, and so on. This is why (L)latex has always been a nice option for wide-format and display graphics providers: it’s easy to print on textiles as well as other materials, and as the inks are water-based they are more user- and environmentally-friendly than solvent.