How To Print Puzzles On-Demand

Most of us remember having a blast piecing puzzles as kids, maybe just for fun or for getting our favourite meal as a reward. Have you ever wondered how puzzles are made? Well, the post you are about to read will explain how to print puzzles-on-demand, whether you’re aiming to print them or just curious about the process.

Puzzles In Print-On-Demand Business

Puzzles are quite a niche product. They aren’t big money earners like T-shirts or tote bags, but the important thing is that they have a steady demand.

Here, check this Google Trends snippet that shows the market interest in puzzles in the last five years:

You can see that the interest for them isn’t so high, but it’s steady (apart from one deviation in the last quarter of the graph).

Also, puzzles have much smaller competition in the print-on-demand business compared to T-shirts. If you are confident enough to make a creative puzzle design, it might pay off in the end!

Who’s The Best Vendor For Print-On-Demand Puzzles?

We found Gooten to be the best vendor for print-on-demand puzzles for the following reasons:

• The base product costs start at $14.
• They ship print-on-demand puzzles worldwide.
• Their base shipping cost is $6.

If you want to sell puzzles on-demand, register to Gooten, and make your business idea a reality!

What’s Required To Print Puzzles On-Demand?

Of course, we need a set of materials and equipment to create puzzles. Here is all that we will need:

• Acrylic. It will be the canvas for the puzzles, which come in different sizes. While it is more expensive than cardboard (the cheapest material for creating puzzles), acrylic will retain more detail.
• UV printing machine. It will be used to print the design on the acrylic with the help of ultra-violet lights. We chose this particular printing technique because it is best for thick substrates, including acrylic.
• Laser cutting machine. It is used to engrave the puzzles with the logo or artwork of individual choice and cut the acrylic to create individual puzzle pieces.
• Artwork. Of course, we will need an image or a design to print on the puzzles. Make sure to export it as a Bitmap file, as most laser cutter machines can only work with that file format. 

Considerations Before The Printing Process Of Puzzles

It’s recommended that the image that will be printed on acrylic is in pixel format. If the image is high resolution, the best choice is 300 dpi to retain the most details.

If a business has a logo or a signature around the edges of the design, it is considered a best practice to move these components at least 1 cm from the image edge. This is because the original photo gets cropped for a few millimeters around the edges after the printing process.

Once these precautions are made, we can draw the puzzle lines on the design to be easier to cut. This is trivialized by puzzle cut templates on Jigsaw Puzzle Generator. The tool generates a .svg file (a vector) that we place on the image we are about to print.

Now, let’s move on to how to print puzzles on-demand! 

UV Printing The Image On Acrylic

UV printing is recommended here because all the printed ink will be cured immediately after printing on acrylic. This preserves details, and they are the most important when creating puzzles. Along with that, the puzzles will be more resistant to fading, giving them extra longevity.

Once we choose the size of the acrylic, we can print on it. The backside of the acrylic should be painted white so that the colors can be seen through the acrylic. On the other hand, the print goes on the front side of the acrylic.

We use the “under-color” and “white-on-color” UV settings here to see the image through and behind the acrylic and not on top of it.

The UV printing process is swiftly done as it doesn’t need any time for curing.

Engraving Logo With The Laser Machine

If we want to place a logo on top of the printed design, we will use the laser machine to apply it. We use it as it provides high precision and preserves detail. After adjusting the power and speed of the process, we wait for the magic to happen!

Cutting Out The Puzzle Pieces

We set the laser cutting machine to cut the acrylic beneath it along the lines you placed on top of the artwork. Again, we adjust the power and speed of the process, and the magic takes place!

 

 

Now you know how to print puzzles on-demand! It’s not such a complicated process once you have all the equipment on hand. Yes, this equipment can be quite expensive, so if you don’t need to print puzzles yourself, it’s always better to outsource this to a print-on-demand business!

About Us

We're M.i.A, a growing international print-on-demand service with a huge product range, including items you haven't even thought about. 

• 150+ Product Range
• Global Locations
• Enterprise Support
• On-site Customisation

Check out our Youtube video here to see how simple print on demand is with our Shopify app!