Flatbed UV Printing vs. Pad Printing: Which Is Right for You?

Pad printing, also known as tampo printing, has been a reliable technology in promotional product customization for decades.

But many UK businesses are realizing that it’s not the best choice for today’s marketplace.

About Pad Printers Understanding Pad Printing (Tampo Printing)

Pad printing (or Tampo printing) is a direct print technology developed to apply single or multi-colour designs to irregular objects.

There are 3 main parts to the printer:

The Plate – which is a flat piece of metal that is engraved with the design you want to print
Ink Cup – that is the reservoir of ink that’s applied by the printer
A Silicon Pad – which is what actually transfers the design onto the object

The whole process is called “Tampography”. In the t-shirt printing world it would be roughly equivalent to screen printing in that the main costs for executing an order are incurred up front.

The plate must be engraved with the design, the ink cup(s) filled and then the pad is pressed onto the promotional product “blank”.

Key Differences

Feature	Flatbed UV Printing	Pad Printing (Tampo Printing)
Material Compatibility	Virtually any material (wood, glass, metal, plastic, acrylic, etc.).	Best for smooth, flat, or slightly curved surfaces; struggles with multi-material designs.
Colour Capabilities	Full-colour, high-resolution images with gradients and textures.	Limited to basic spot colours and often requires multiple runs for complex designs.
Setup Time	Minimal setup; digital file preparation only.	Requires plates, inks, and pads for each design, increasing setup complexity.
Production Speed	Ideal for short to medium runs due to fast, automated printing.	Efficient for high-volume production but less effective for small batches.
Durability	UV-cured inks provide excellent scratch resistance and weatherproofing.	Inks may require post-treatment and are less durable in outdoor conditions.
Customization Flexibility	Capable of detailed, personalized designs on-demand.	Best suited for repetitive, large-batch designs with less detail.
Cost Efficiency	Low long-term costs due to digital workflow and minimal consumables.	Higher costs for small runs due to plate and pad creation.

The set up takes time and some real investment in custom plates – and it’s quite a manual process to set up. But once they are the costs to actually print are low – it’s perfect for very high volume. If you’re ordering 10,000 pens or custom stress balls, there’s a very good chance that it was printed with a pad printer.

Digital Printing with UV

Flatbed UV printing is a completely different process and provides the same kind of advances in promotional product and sign printing (hard goods) that direct to garment printers did for custom t-shirts.

Printer UV flatbed style uses ink like a pad printer and produces single or full colour images like a pad printer. But there are no plates to etch or ink cups to fill OR liquid ink mess to clean up when you’re done.

Here’s the UV printing process:

Load your customer design into the RIP software that’s included with the printer
Place you’re the substate on the flat bed of the printer
Print

Of course that’s a simplified explanation as each step has many options.

Like you can adjust colors, sizes, create duplicates or introduce variable data into your designs. You can make last-minute changes and do so as many times as you’d like.

And the only cost to doing any of that is your time, because there are no hard set up costs like for the plates in pad printing.

You can think about a uv printer as a kind of “digital pad printer” with the pros and cons below:

Key Advantages of Flatbed UV Printing vs. Pad Printing

Material Versatility: While pad printing is traditionally limited to smaller items with flat or slightly curved surfaces, flatbed UV printers can print directly onto nearly any material or shape, including uneven and textured surfaces. This opens up more opportunities for customization and product diversification.
Higher Resolution: UV printing offers unmatched precision and the ability to produce full colour, photorealistic images, including gradients, textures, and raised effects. Pad printing, by contrast, is limited to simpler designs and lacks the ability to achieve fine details.
Ease of Setup: Again, with flatbed UV printing, there’s no need for plates, pads, or ink mixing. The process is entirely digital, which reduces preparation time and allows for quick design changes. Pad printing requires extensive manual setup for each job, making it less flexible for short or custom runs.
Size Flexibility: The UV 300H3F for example, can print up to 914 x 609 mm. And that can be one HUGE design on wood to pens, to metal buttons or plastic name tags.
Pad printing involves the use of consumable plates and pads, contributing to higher material waste.
Cost Efficiency for Short Runs: Flatbed UV printers excel in low to medium-volume runs due to their efficient setup and minimal consumable use. Pad printing becomes cost-effective only at very high volumes, where the upfront cost of plates and pads can be distributed across a large production run.

When to Use Pad Printing

Despite its limitations, pad printing still has a place in certain industries. It’s particularly effective for high-volume, repetitive designs on small, simple items like pens, bottle caps, and other promotional products with uniform shapes. However, businesses looking for flexibility, detail, and lower production costs for shorter runs will benefit far more from a flatbed UV printer.

Conclusion

Flatbed UV printing outshines pad printing in nearly every category, from material versatility to setup speed and cost-effectiveness for small to medium runs. But not EVERY category.

So, if you’re expanding your customization capabilities and are looking for the solutions that fits, let our experts help! YES Group has been in business for 30 years and our success has been in helping UK businesses grow over time by providing them with what’s next.

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