Prints... photo paper vs canvas vs acrylic vs aluminium vs ???

[ToTo Man]

It's been ages since I last had a photograph printed for displaying on a wall, and it now seems possible to print on almost any surface you can think of. I am intrigued by the option to print on aluminium and was wondering how this came to be? Having watched a few youtube videos I am not really any the wiser on why printing on aluminium in particular is so popular over, say acrylic, or indeed any other surface to which a bright white substrate can adhere to?

I know that some people opt for a 'raw' or 'sheer' finish in which the print is dye-sublimated onto a clear substrate to allow the colour and grain of the aluminium backing to show through the image, however it seems that most opt for a gloss or matte white substrate so that the image looks like a traditional print. In the latter case, what advantage does the aluminium bring apart from serving as a thin, lightweight backing board? Why would an aluminium print provide better or worse resolution, contrast, and colour saturation than, say, an acrylic print or conventional photo print, given that the image is not actually being printed onto the surface of the metal itself but onto a bright white substrate that has presumably been formulated to mimic the properties of conventional photo paper?

BTW - I'm pretty sure this is my first post in the Photo forum since I joined pfm in 2008!

 

[Mr Perceptive]

I had an aluminium print done, I had a promotional voucher from Saal Digital, combined with another promotion they were running meant that I got an 75x50cm alumminium print for about a tenner!

Its printed on a white substrate, its good (resolution is fine) but there are some buts.....

1) It's slightly washed out (de saturated) - very matt finish
2) The finished article looks like it belongs in an office, or a very modern (style and decoration) house, its not very 'homely' - it's destined for my home office so for me ok

If I wanted a print to hang in my 'home' then I think I would prefer a traditional print, nicely framed with non-reflective glass.

Saal Digital do lots of promotions, if you sign up or follow them on the likes of Instagram?Facebook etc, then its only a matter of time before you start getting vouchers, I've had two so far, one for a photobook (which was excellent) and one for ant wall art (I chose the aluminium print as I was curious!)