Mumbai-based Venus Infotech provides color management solutions, products like paper, sublimation inks as well as software solutions to different printers in the commercial, publication and packaging segments. In January the company introduced promotional gift products with studs – an innovative solution in graphics for the photo print industry.
Hemanshu Desai, owner of Venus Infotech, says, “Various commercial printers provide printing solutions on personalized gifts but we are the first company to come up with the stud concept in gifts. Personalized studded products including mugs, mobile covers and a few other products are based on the sublimation process. After the printing the image on the paper substrate gets transferred to different products. It enhances the look of products for which we have developed different die punches in various designs and templates. After using the templates a printer or designer can create designs and studs can be arranged around the image through the sublimation printing process.”
The sublimation printing process uses heat to transfer dyes onto materials such as plastic, card paper or fabric. The heating is done at around 180 degrees for 180 seconds for printing on gift products. For stud printing around the customized products in a specific layout, the temperature remains the same but heating time is reduced to 30 seconds. By giving an example Desai says, “On a special occasion like Valentine’s Day, the heart or double heart shape with the image of a couple and the studs act as a value addition to the product. For various applications we have developed around 400 templates. Based on templates we provide studs to our clients in the form of stickers. This can be achieved with the existing sublimation process and doesn’t require any extra equipment.”
Many commercial printers have approached Venus Infotech and hope to become popular in the personalized print segment. Desai who has a rich experience of around 35 years in the printing industry says, “Apart from studs, we provide color management solutions to commercial printers. In the sublimation print industry, colors are printed, checked and images are modified by printers to achieve the desired result. It consumes a lot of time and energy. We help printers by setting up a color system and simplifying the prepress workflow to enable them work efficiently.”
