Large Format Printing News: Made Smarter Grants, PRINTING United 2026 and Getting Your Colour Right

This week we’ve rounded up some genuine large format printing news from the past couple of weeks, plus a practical guide to getting reliable colour out of your printer.

News Roundup

Made Smarter grants are fuelling wide-format investment across UK sign shops

Government-backed Made Smarter grants (up to 50% match-funded, capped at £20,000) are helping English SME sign and print businesses invest in new kit. The scheme’s latest case studies include Andrews Signs & Engravers in York, who put a £15,000 grant towards a £35,650 wide-format digital printing upgrade that added automated media handling and faster print speeds — well worth a look if you’re weighing up a new machine and want to offset the cost.

swissQprint previews PRINTING United Expo 2026

swissQprint America ran a live event on 14 August showcasing large format UV samples and a new West Dundee, Illinois showroom, positioned as a warm-up for PRINTING United Expo 2026 (23–25 September, Las Vegas). Worth watching if you’re weighing up UV flatbed or roll-to-roll options later this year — expect more manufacturers to trail announcements ahead of the show over the coming weeks.

Epson launches a wide-format bundle aimed at schools

Epson has introduced a SureColor T3770E “Education Edition” bundle — a 24″ wide-format printer packaged with Epson Print Automate software, matte and glossy paper rolls, starter inks and a maintenance box, aimed at schools bringing poster and visual aid printing in-house. It’s a smaller-scale launch, but a useful reminder that manufacturers are increasingly selling wide-format “solutions” rather than printers alone — something to bear in mind when comparing quotes.

Tips: Getting Reliable Colour Out of Your Large Format Printer

If proofs on screen never quite match what comes off the printer, or two rolls of “the same” media give slightly different results, the fix usually isn’t the printer — it’s your colour management workflow. A few practical steps make a big difference:

1. Use a media-specific ICC profile, not a generic one. Every paper or vinyl absorbs ink differently. A profile built for DS Jet White MasterQ 90gsm won’t necessarily hold up on a gloss photo media or a self-adhesive vinyl. Most RIP software lets you load and switch profiles per job — it takes seconds and avoids expensive reprints.
2. Calibrate your monitor, not just your printer. A well-profiled printer is only half the equation. If your proofing screen is running warm or overly bright, you’ll “correct” jobs that were never wrong to begin with. A basic hardware calibrator pays for itself the first time it stops an unnecessary reprint.
3. Re-profile after any significant ink or media change. Swapping to a new batch of media, a different ink set, or even a firmware update can shift colour response enough to notice on skin tones or brand colours. Build a quick nozzle check and a spot colour test into your job start-up routine.
4. Keep a “known good” swatch on hand. Print and keep a reference strip for your most common jobs (a brand colour, a skin tone, a neutral grey) each time you profile. It gives you a fast visual check before a big run, rather than discovering a shift halfway through 20 metres of banner.
5. Talk to us about ink-media pairing before you buy. Not every ink chemistry is happy on every substrate — pigment inks and uncoated stock, for instance, need a bit more thought. A quick chat before ordering saves far more time than troubleshooting a colour mismatch after the job’s printed.

None of this requires expensive kit — mostly it’s about building profiling and a quick sanity check into your workflow so colour surprises get caught before the job ships, not after.