Acrylic Prints: Is Non Glare A Good Option?
If you’ve done any research into acrylic photo mounting you’ve probably seen some discussion around the issue of regular vs non- glare acrylic and wondered what option was best for you, so we thought we’d spend a little time on the pros and cons of non-glare acrylic.
Pros:
Less glare of course! That’s about it!
Cons:
(1) Diminished vibrancy of the image
(2) Color Cast
(3) Higher cost
It seems some people get overly concerned with the potential for glare. Look around your home during the day and see how much glare is on your traditional glass framed art. See it? Had you every really noticed it before and if you did, did it really bother you? Most will say no. If it is a concern for you, proper lighting and strategically placed prints can help. 90% of our customers don’t inquire and don’t care about 100% non-glare acrylic mounting but more are interested in anti-glare acrylic which diminishes it some without losing vibrancy (see below).
The biggest disadvantage is the loss of vibrancy of your image which is a trade-off we personally wouldn’t make. Some can even have a bit of a color cast to it. It’s up to you though! If you want non-glare acrylic we don’t provide it through our online system and don’t carry it in stock, but we can certainly provide a custom quote and order some for you.
UPDATE: We have tested quite a few of the non-glare acrylic products out there over the years and never found one we were happy with due to the reasons above. That is until now. Keep in mind there is no acrylic that eliminates glare completely that we’d recommend since it defeats the purpose of acrylic which great vibrancy. In this case, it’s best to just go with one of our products that don’t have an acrylic face (for example our bamboo, birch, aluminum, canvas, and dibond products offer a terrific look with no glare) if you want ZERO glare.
If you love the vibrancy of the acrylic, but want to minimize glare we recommend an anti-reflective acrylic. You get the best of both worlds really – the vibrancy and reduced glare. We now have two choices here:
TruLife Acrylic Prints: In addition to reducing glare around 25-30% (by our estimates), TruLife offers a bump up in UV protection (from 75% for our standard acrylic to about 99%), scratch resistance and anti-static properties to minimize dust.
Anti-Glare Standard: If glare is your biggest concern then we have a product that reduces it more than the Trulife (about a 50% reduction) but doesn’t have the other benefits. It’s quite a bit cheaper too
