- What it is
- A printed film pierced with a regular grid of small holes across its whole area, so a nominal half of the surface is image and the other half is open. Applied to the outer face of glass, the printed side faces the street; from inside, the eye focuses past the holes and the graphic largely disappears. Nothing about the image is special. The perforation is the whole product.
- What it is printed on
Perforated self-adhesive vinyl, supplied with a black reverse so light inside the room does not wash the image out from behind. Open-area ratios differ between products and the trade is direct: more open area gives a clearer view out and a coarser image, less open area gives a solid-looking graphic and a darker room. Applied outside it usually takes an optically clear overlaminate, because dust and rain fill unprotected holes and the graphic goes patchy. It is a film rather than a sheet, so the materials library holds no reading for it.
- How it feels
- Slightly rough and open, like a fine mesh laid over a smooth face. Drag a fingertip across it and the holes are audible before they are visible. Laminated, the surface goes smooth again and the perforation can only be found by holding it up to the light.
- What it suits
- Shopfront glazing, food and beverage frontage, roadshow trailers and vehicle rear windows — anywhere a graphic must not blind the people sitting behind it. It does not suit a window that has to work after dark: once the room is brighter than the street the lighting reverses, the graphic vanishes outside and reads as a dark screen inside. It does not suit small panes either, because the perforation eats detail and fine type breaks up.
- Lead time
- Standard turnaround is 7–14 working days. Installation, where it applies, is scheduled on top of that.
- The common mistake
- Specifying it for the inside face of the glass. One-way vision is an exterior-mount product: applied from inside, the print faces the room, the adhesive is against the wrong side of the glass, and the view out is ruined rather than preserved. Where an installer genuinely cannot reach the outside, the answer is a different film, not the same one turned around.
Print idea
One-way vision window film
Perforated film that reads as a solid graphic from the street and as a window from inside. The holes are the product: they are what the eye outside ignores and what the eye inside sees through.
Standard turnaround is 7–14 working days.
What one-way vision window film is
A printed film pierced with a regular grid of small holes across its whole area, so a nominal half of the surface is image and the other half is open. Applied to the outer face of glass, the printed side faces the street; from inside, the eye focuses past the holes and the graphic largely disappears. Nothing about the image is special. The perforation is the whole product.
Perforated self-adhesive vinyl, supplied with a black reverse so light inside the room does not wash the image out from behind. Open-area ratios differ between products and the trade is direct: more open area gives a clearer view out and a coarser image, less open area gives a solid-looking graphic and a darker room. Applied outside it usually takes an optically clear overlaminate, because dust and rain fill unprotected holes and the graphic goes patchy. It is a film rather than a sheet, so the materials library holds no reading for it.
- The laminate. It takes the wear, not the print.
- The ink.
- The face film.
- The adhesive.
- The release liner, peeled away at the moment of application.
- The glass. The film is on the near face, so nothing protects the print but the laminate over it.
- The perforation, drawn through every layer at a nominal 50 per cent open area. A nominal half the surface is open. More open area gives a clearer view out and a coarser image.
The specification
Six fields, and the last one is the useful one.
The same six questions are answered for every entry in this section, in the same order, so two objects can be compared without reading two pages of prose. The mistake is stated last and stated plainly, because it is the one that costs a reprint and it is the reason this page is worth sending to a colleague.
Where this sits.
Every entry is indexed three ways, because a buyer arrives knowing the occasion, the object or the material and almost never all three.
- Application
- Format
- Material and effect
Also worth looking at
- Frosted glass manifestationStandard turnaround is 7–14 working days.
- Cut and contour-cut vinyl graphicsStandard turnaround is 7–14 working days.
- Vehicle wraps and part wrapsStandard turnaround is 7–14 working days.
- Window and floor graphicsStandard turnaround is 7–14 working days.
- Large formatThe specification, and how it is quoted
- Every print idea, indexed three waysThe section index
- The materials libraryCaliper, weight and what each finish costs
Send the specification for this, and it comes back quoted.
Every job is quoted from its specification — stock, quantity, sides, finish, size and deadline.
- Quantity
- Stock — or the feel you want, if you do not know the stock
- Sides printed
- Finish
- Flat and finished size
- The deadline
Artwork is welcome but not required to start. Email sales@ezprint.com.sg if you would rather attach files.