Give your graphics a decisive edge

If like me you have been involved in a sign company for a good few years, it is possible you will remember a time before wide-format digital printing, a time when the most popular materials you would use would be acrylic, PVCu, and self-adhesive vinyl. The basics are still the same as then, but back then you cut lettering from the vinyl, applied it to the substrate or vehicle of choice, and that was about it.

Then in the early 1990s an invitation arrived in the post along with a sample of two telephone handsets. One familiar, cut and weeded out, the other looking almost 3D, with printed effects: a view into the future.


Like many others my bosses took the opportunity of a trip down to Bristol to the headquarters of Spandex to be introduced to the Gerber Edge. This technology would ultimately do for sign businesses what the introduction of the Graphix III did in the 80s.

Prior to its introduction, digital printing was the preserve of companies providing print services to photographers and designers for interior use only. The output was not durable enough for outdoor use. The best method of production for multiple runs of items that were durable enough to use outdoors was to screen-print, but short-runs were out of the question. With the Edge we now had a printer that we could handle all the materials we were used to and more besides. These included magnetic media, thin poly-carbonates, and even vinyls designed to be almost impossible to remove. Opportunities seemingly were endless.



The Gerber Edge 2 is an optimised thermal transfer printer with a maximum print width of 297mm. Jobs however can be tiled, so it is possible to print images of limitless height and limited only in length by the media.

It uses a range of substrates and outdoor durable foils in a range of colours and process colours. The current FX also offers a 15m foil version, handy for those less popular colours. The Edge is driven by amongst others Gerber’s Omega software, which originated as vinyl cutting software, but with the advent of the the technology became a print and cut package, the other notable software is Cadlink’s SignLab.

We have used our own Edge 2 since the late 90s. It is hooked up to a PC running Omega 2. Both have been superseded though, the Edge 2 with the new FX and Omega is currently available as version 5.  To get the best out of the Edge you will also need one of Gerber’s 380 wide plotters. We run a Gerber envision with ours.

Currently it is possible to lease an Edge FX and a GSX plotter with Omega cut print software over three years for around £377+VAT per month. A quick check on the internet uncovered a couple of examples of Edge Ones but it is worth pointing out that this could be an inexpensive route into Edge ownership, but if you had to replace the head in one of those units you would probably find it cheaper to start again. A maintenance scheme is available through UK distributors Spandex. Our own machine has been faultless over the years, with the only major items needing replacement being the two gas rams for the cover but we have found the Spandex maintenance to be of a high standard when cover is in place.

In operation, with Omega 2.0 setting up files for print, it is relatively straightforward. Files of most types can be imported into composer, which is the design element of the program, with all the features of some of main design software programs on the market. It is a step-by-step process that anyone familiar with Gerber’s software will know. It is at this stage you decide whether you are going to use the process CMYK foils or spot colours.

With the Edge 1 you got 300 x 300dpi, the Edge 2 gave you 600 x 300dpi, and the current Edge FX gives you 1200 x 300dpi on process colour jobs. With the job loaded into Composer and the shapes filled in the correct colour chosen from the colour palette on screen, which are all Gerber colour foils, you can add bleeds traps and overprints and set the job to be cut. It is also possible to print onto coloured vinyl other than white and use this background colour in your design.



When you are ready to print the job, it is sent to the GSP Plot window where the last choices to be made are adding a white foil backing if the job is for printing onto clear or coloured vinyl and adding an abrasion guard which is similar to a laminate.

Outputting on the Edge other than a single colour is not an unattended process, with each foil needing to be changed until all the colours have been printed. It is a reliable printer with very little intervention required. If the job allows it could be left to run a single colour through a full roll of vinyl with little risk.

Gerber gained a reputation for building industrial-quality machines that were solid and dependable; this alone explains why a system that first came onto the market in 1993 is still only on version three and is still selling today.


Is there a place in a modern sign company for an Edge? With wide-format inkjet becoming more accessible, and at only 297mm print width, it is not going to suit everybody. But it is the wide range of media available and the special effect foils that is its unique selling point. A quick look at some of the forums shows there is still strong support of the original sign-maker’s digital printer; with the Edge FX playing key roles that a wide-format machine just could not do. The niche markets exist for a speciality machine like this. All of which leads me to think the Edge will be with us for some time yet.

Key Features:

• Versatile with endless applications
• Well proven technology
• Not the widest machine but ultra-reliable
• Thermal print technology
• Short-runs a speciality

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