UV printing full-color maps on wood and acrylic

Difficulty: Beginner to Intermediate. Time: 30 to 60 minutes plus print time. Needs a flatbed UV printer or a print service that prints on rigid stock.

A flatbed UV printer puts full-colour ink straight onto a rigid surface and cures it with UV light as it prints. A map can go onto a wood panel, acrylic of any colour, mirror acrylic or metal sheet, with no paper, no frame glass and no transfer, and the panel hangs on the wall as it is.

This guide covers the flat print. For a printed back panel with a laser cut acrylic street layer floating above it on standoffs, use the UV Printed Layered Map preset. To combine printing with cut, scored and 3D printed layers in one piece, see Mixed media maps.

UV printed with no white backer and lit from behind, so the light comes through the colours. Check a print like this with the light on and off, because it looks darker without it.

Open a printable map preset

On this page (7)

1. Pick a flat-colour preset
2. Print with or without a white backer
3. Download the print file
UV printing
Finished maps on different surfaces
Printing for light from behind
Troubleshooting

What you need

A flatbed UV printer, or a local print service that prints on rigid stock
A panel: sanded light hardwood or birch for the grain look, white acrylic or metal sheet for strong colour, clear, coloured or mirror acrylic for a print the light or the mirror shows through
220-grit sandpaper for wood, a lint-free cloth and a cleaner approved for your panel and printing process
Optional satin clear coat, and anodized standoff spacers for float-mounting

1. Pick a flat-colour preset

A UV print needs a flat, full-colour design rather than a stack of cut layers. Good choices: Vintage Parchment Map, made for printing on wood grain, Blueprint Map, Neon Night Map, Midnight Gold Map and the plain City Map. Leave a margin of land around your city so it does not touch the edge of the panel.

2. Print with or without a white backer

Coloured UV inks can let the surface show through. A layer of white ink underneath, called a white backer, reduces that effect and makes the print more opaque. It does not guarantee a match to your screen. Use material supported by your printer and ink system, and choose the effect you want:

Wood, no white backer: the wood grain shows through the inks and becomes the paper of the map. This is the look the vintage palette is made for. Hide the Background at export, so only the roads, water and parks print onto the bare grain.
White backer, for more opaque colour: print white first, then the colours. Use it on supported dark, coloured or transparent panels when the surface should not show through. With the Background shown, the whole map rectangle gets a printed background. See Roland’s white-base printing example.
No white backer, see-through: on clear or frosted acrylic the print stays semi-transparent, so it glows when light comes from behind, in a lightbox, a window or an edge-lit stand.
White under part of the design: on mirror or coloured acrylic, print white only under the roads, water or parks. Everywhere else the mirror or the colour of the sheet stays bare and becomes part of the map.

To print white under part of the design, hide the Background at export, so the PNG is transparent around the map. The software that came with your printer, often called the RIP, can then build the white layer from the PNG: white under everything that has colour, nothing where the PNG is transparent. The option is named differently on each printer, such as white under colour or white from transparency.

Screenshot of the UV-Printed Maps: 2. Print with or without a white backer

3. Download the print file

In the Export Preview, open Layer visibility on the right and click the eye next to Background to hide it. The PNG then has a transparent background, so only the map prints and the surface shows around it.
Click Polygon cleanup so tiny park and water slivers do not speckle the print.
Under Mounting holes, choose Corner holes if you plan to float-mount the panel on standoffs. Drill or laser cut them before you print.
Choose Download as PNG (print). Its longest side is 4096 px, which prints sharp at 300 dpi up to about 35 cm. On a 60 cm panel it is about 170 dpi, which still looks clean from a step away.

The Export Preview of the Map Designer with the Background hidden and the print download marked with numbers — 1: Background hidden, for a transparent PNG. 2: Polygon cleanup. 3: Mounting holes. 4: Download as PNG (print).

Screenshot of the UV-Printed Maps: 3. Download the print file

Choose your build method

UV printing

Print onto wood

Sand the panel to 220 grit and blow it clean. UV ink shows every raised fibre and speck of dust.
In the printer software, place the transparent PNG at your panel size and print the colours with no white backer, so the grain shows through.
Print a small test first. If you want a satin varnish, choose one compatible with the ink and panel, then test the finish and adhesion on the sample before coating the finished map.

Print onto acrylic, mirror or metal sheet

Remove the protective film from the printing side. Clean and prepare the panel as recommended by its supplier and the printer manufacturer; use primer if that combination requires it. Check adhesion with a small test print before making the full panel.
For solid colour, print the white backer first, then the colours. For a see-through print on clear acrylic, skip the white. On mirror, print white only under the design so the mirror shows around it.
Hang it on anodized standoff spacers at the corners, so the panel floats a little off the wall.

Finished maps on different surfaces

Street map on blue mirror acrylic with the main roads in red — A street map on blue mirror acrylic. The main roads are red and the mirror shows between the streets, the look you get by printing white only under the design.

Finished black-and-white figure-ground city map with a dark border — A figure-ground map: the buildings in black, the streets and squares left white. Dense blocks like these print cleanly when Polygon cleanup is on.

Two lake depth maps in blue and turquoise glitter acrylic on green land plates — Lake depth maps in glitter acrylic. For a faster version of the same look, UV print the depth bands onto one sheet and cut only the shore plate.

Before the full panel, print a corner of the map onto an offcut of the same sheet. It shows how the surface changes the colours and whether the finest streets survive.

Printing for light from behind

Troubleshooting

The colours look pale or see-through: check whether the white layer is enabled and covers the intended areas. Test its density on an offcut before printing the whole panel.
A white or cream box prints around the map: the Background was still on. Hide it in Layer visibility before you download the PNG.
The finest streets disappear: make the map wider, so each street is printed bigger, or pick a preset with bolder roads.
Ink beads up or rubs off: check for protective film, dust or grease, then check ink compatibility, surface preparation and curing settings. Use a cleaner and any primer recommended for this material and ink system. Test adhesion on an offcut.

Next steps and project ideas

The vintage parchment palette on bare maple, no white backer, with a satin coat.
Neon Night Map on black acrylic with a white backer under the streets, so they glow against the dark sheet.
Print onto a cork panel so the texture looks like old paper.
Add a compass icon and a coordinates line before printing.
The floating two-layer build: print the base, then laser cut an acrylic street layer to stand above it.
Print a square map and round the panel corners on the laser for a softer shape.
Gold mirror acrylic with white and colour printed only under the water and parks, so the streets stay gold.