Product Review: Printing on Xpozer for fine art photography
As some of you may be aware, we, at Kiss of Heaven Photography, want to provide fine art prints for those who don’t have it in their budget to purchase an acrylic or metal print. It has been our goal to provide something for all income levels to enjoy fine art. We thought that we had found the right product to fill this need in Xpozer, a photographic print on vinyl. Unfortunately, after testing, we determined that Xpozer just does not meet our need for quality.
Before I say what we did not like about Xpozer prints, let me first say what we did like:
1) Colors were vibrant and the print looked almost like a ChromaLuxe metal print.
2) The price for Xpozer prints are considerably lower than an acrylic or metal print,
making them affordable.
3) The prints were superiorly anti-glare.
4) The prints arrive ready to hang.
What we found
Too Fragile
Xpozer prints are too fragile. In the process of putting up and taking down an Xpozer print that we hung on the wall, we ended up wrinkling it. Unfortunately, this was very easy to do. Once present, it is impossible to remove the wrinkle.
Rattles
During the summer months, we like to turn on a ceiling fan to keep cool. Unfortunately, because an Xpozer print is so light and only attaches to the wall at the top, the vinyl catches the wind and ends up rattling against the wall. This could be solved by attaching some museum putty to the bottom of the frame to hold it against the wall. Although this would stop the Xpozer print from rattling, I found that even the best museum putty will eventually stain drywall after years of sitting there. At worst, low quality museum putty could remove the outside paper of the drywall after years of service.
Low Water-resistance
At one point of time, a droplet of water hit the Xpozer print. We immediately wiped it away with a soft cloth, but this was not enough to prevent discoloration of the print where the water touched the print. The ink of Xpozer prints, being water-based, causes us to doubt that the print would hold up well in high humidity climates.
Difficult to Match Image on Screen
Lastly, getting an Xpozer print to look how it looks on screen was extremely difficult, requiring extensive color editing. Nonetheless, we were willing to put in the time to get it to look right for our budget-minded customer, but coupled with the other negatives, this just was not worth it.
Conclusion about Xpozer
So, you might be asking, would I recommend Xpozer prints to anyone? Yes, I in fact I would. I would recommend Xpozer printing to amateur photographers who want to see their photos printed large. One of the unique features of the Xpozer print is that you can remove the print from the frame and put a different Xpozer print on that same frame (it saves you money to not have to buy another frame when you want to see a different photo displayed). However, would I recommend professional photographers provide Xpozer prints to their customers? NOT!
Stay tuned to our search for the conclusion of our search for fine art print alternative for the budget-minded.