Acrylic vs Metal Prints: Which Is Better?

Well, before reading this article, what you are going to do first, is, you are not going to let this article’s title fool you. Yes, there are types of prints such as acrylic and metal, but those are not the only ones. There are also other types of prints, such as Glass, wood, and paper photo prints, which are just as important to mention as the acrylic and the metal.

With that said, we can continue straight to business, that being talking about the differences between acrylic and metal prints but also about their similarities. Let’s start!

Acrylic vs Metal Prints: Which one wins?

What are the acrylic prints good for?

Even if it’s not taken by a professional photographer, the acrylic print might look just like the real thing, so what it does is, it gives a real professional touch to the print, making it more vivid and eminent, considering the fact that it also makes the colors more intense.

You do need to be more careful with the acrylic as they require more to be taken care of but once you get the light right, acrylic prints look stunning and they give the impression of a real thing, a printed mountain on an acrylic photo with make you start hiking, no kidding!

Now, let’s answer the above-stated question:

• The light – With the Acrylic prints, the light is your ally. Once you find the perfect lighting you are good to go! Changing the light means changing the prints. With the light scatter, you get a whole other print each time the light moves.
• Colors – This feature is again connected with the lighting. Once you hit the light, you hit the colors, which means the colors become more and more visible and vivid if you get the lighting just about right.
• Practical – Acrylic prints tend to be more practical in comparison with metal prints. Acrylic prints or blocks can be hung or put in locations where metal prints can be hard to be placed.
• Solid – Even though at the first sight, metal prints can look more solid, that might not be the case. Usually, acrylic prints tend to be more solid and well accentuated than any other type of print.
• Detailed – Acrylic prints deal with details like no other type of print. Acrylic prints have this unmatched clarity of line.
• Depth – As I mentioned before, acrylic prints make you imagine yourself being somewhere inside the print. They have the power of showing the printed stage vividly as you are living in real life.

Acrylic prints come in two forms, those being: Acrylic and Acrylic premium prints.

The difference between them is that the acrylic prints are digitally reproduced directly onto the backing sheet, and the acrylic premium prints are printed first on real photo paper before being laminated onto the backing sheet.

What are the metal prints good for?

Put them anywhere and they will do their thing. They don’t care about the light, they can manage to look captivating on their own. They might not display skin tones as good as the acrylic prints, but they can make a perfect huge eye-catching landscape. You can easily clean up these prints as they don’t get destroyed if they get wet or some unwanted accident happens around the prints. On these prints, the photo is displayed in a form of a composite panel made of aluminum. These types of prints usually don’t have borders and they can be defined as these classic and elegant prints.

Let’s see why you should choose metal prints instead of acrylic prints:

• Useable everywhere – And, when I say everywhere, I mean everywhere. You can put them in a room with no proper light, they still will look quite magnificent. You can put them in a room with them the extra light and they will do their thing by looking captivating once again. You can put them under the sunlight and they will not say, hey that’s a lot of light because they don’t really give a glare.
• Metallic surface miracle – Yes, we talked about how good are the acrylic prints with making the colors vibrant but metallic colors are no exception. This feature adds to the depth of color and makes them quite captivating for the naked eye.
• Easy to clean – Yes, we are dirty creatures and we mess up with everything we touch, but since the metal prints are easy to be cleaned, there’s no need to worry. They also resist scratches and it’s really easy to wipe out the fingerprints off them.
• Price – Yes, you material creature, you can buy metal prints for a lower price than you can buy acrylic prints. Metal prints are significantly cheaper than acrylic prints and that makes them more reachable for art lovers.
• No frame – You don’t need to do extra work on metal prints. You can buy them and hang them directly since they don’t need a specific frame, they can look stunning even without a frame. So, frameless it is.
• Modern – Metal prints have the power to make every space look more modern, while the acrylic prints give more of a vintage, antic vibe. They can suit well for every room of your house, office, or anywhere, you just name the place you want to give modern vibes to, and metal prints will do the work.

Metal prints also come in two forms, those being: Glossy and matte print.

The difference is that glossy metal prints are printed on real photo paper and then laminated onto the composite panel, and the mate metal prints are digitally reproduced directly onto the composite panel.

Final words

So, depending on what you want for your home, office, or any space you want to through a glimpse of art, you can choose from these two types of prints. Of course, it is up to you if you will go for more of a modern look or more of an old, antique look. Whatever your decision might be, you won’t regret it, for sure.

Before we end, i would also recommend you read our article on the best sublimation printers for beginners you can get your hands on, because you need a printer to be able to print on physical items.