Review: Fab-tac material vs. Photo-tex material Summary

After a few weeks of testing, our results are compiled from our Fab-tac (by Magiclee) versus Photo-tex (by the Photo Tex Group) competition. In the beginning, both materials seem very identical and are very close in thickness, weight, and outward appearance. See the Summary Data and Results in this post.

Photo-tex is water resistant (hence is more prone to tunneling on the roll and ruining your print if you don’t store the roll correctly. This is because the air bubbles can build up between the lining and the actual material.

Fab-tac is not water resistant and therefore should be coated after printing in order to last the longest time in UV light or in other harsh environments such as being outdoor. It is easier and much more friendly to print on since the material is unlikely to separate from the backing.

Photo-tex does not have as good of a color gamut when tested on an Epson 9800 printer and an HP Designjet Z3100 printer. This is both a qualitative and quantitative difference (both looking at it by human eye and through a Gretag Macbeth Spectrophotometer. )

When stuck to a surface for a period of more than a few weeks, Fab-tac is no longer able to be repositioned. Once it is removed at this point the adhesive is left behind on the surface. It was not very difficult to remove, but this could be a problem for areas of sensitive surfaces. Photo-tex is repositionable indefinitely and did not leave any noticeable residue during our testing.

The Fab-tac material is significantly cheaper per square foot than Photo-tex is. Other noticeable differences were that the Fab-tac material was easier to store when unprinted and kept better over time.

As a result, we feel the Photo-tex is still the more unique of the two products as it seems to be repositionable for extremely long periods of time. Fab-tac has some great applications in terms of being vivid and not being a permanent adhesive. We will continue to use both Photo-tex and Fab-tac depending on the individual job application and preferences of the client.

See a summary of the data in the following table: Fab-tac vs Photo-tex Summary Table