Review Saal Digital Alu-Dibond

In this weeks post I would like to review a Alu-Dibond wallhanging I ordered at Saal-Digital (opens in new tab), an online print service that promises ‘HighEnd quality” prints, wallhangings and posters. In my ongoing search for the best quality prints to sell to my customers, I wanted to put this to the test! Fortunately, In order to get reviewers, Saal offers a € 50,- coupon you can spend on the product you want to review.

The material

I choose the 40 x 60 cm Alu-Dibond wallhanging, which is basically a layer of polyethylene sandwiched between two layers of aluminum. The image is printed on the aluminium plate using a UV-direct printer. This material is known for its extreme bending strength, weather resistance and offers impressive color intensity with the highest possible resolution, and maximum sharpness. This sounds epic, so lets see if it is true! For maximum quality and control, Saal offers ICC profiles in order to soft proof the colors of your photo (in Lightroom or Photoshop). Using an ICC profile, the colors between your image and the printed product are equalized. This means that your image will look the way you intended it to look. Saal offers no automatic image optimization. So you don’t need to worry about switching this off.

The iconic and beautiful Brockenbahn in Germany. A perfect image to put the print quality to the test thanks to all the details, different tones and contrasts.

Ordering

The ordering process is relatively simple. You can choose between two options: a direct upload or via their software package. Next to this Saal also offers a plugin for Photoshop and Indesign aimed at the professional user.  I opted for the software. First you download and install the software packet (both Mac and Windows). Once that is done, the rest is pretty straightforward.

1. In the first step you choose your product. In this case the Alu-Dibond.
2. Then choose your size and which hanging system you want. I opted for 40 x 60 cm with a standard hanging system.
3. After this, it is time to place the image. I chose full size without anything else.
4. Now your product goes in your shopping basket and you are ready to buy the product.

The ordering process is simple and straightforward.

The final product

The delivery was pretty fast! I only had to wait 4 days. The packaging is really good. Lots of cardboard and luckily not too much plastic. I like this because there is already too much plastic in the environment! The package feels solid and I’m confident that the product is well protected.

The print itself is exactly as I expected. Using the ICC profile paid off! The contrast and colors (or should I say lack of colors) are the same as when I edited the image. The overall toning is perfect. The print is nice and sharp too!

The overall look of the print is fantastic. The colors and contrasts are the way I intended them to be.

Now lets take a close look. If we look at the darker areas of the image we still see a lot of detail. There is no noise to be found in these areas. The snow is the way it should be, namely white! The details in the smoke, train, trees, and snow are razor sharp. The quality of the print is really high.

In the dark areas there is a lot of detail. The snow is the way it should be, namely white! The image is razor sharp.

Conclusion

After seeing the final product in person, I can verify the high end quality that Saal-Digital promises.  The ordering process is simple. Professionals get what they want too (full control over color management and layout). The end product is beautiful and the delivery fast. The wall hanging system is really simple, two metal stickers that you place on the backside of the print. This system works perfect with the cable rail I’m using, but you can also hang it using screws or nails.

Print size issues

My only complaint is that at the moment, their largest format print (for aluminium, canvas and glass) is 50 x 75 cm ( 2:3 format) and 50 x 100 cm (panoramic). This used to be much larger but somehow they won’t ship this size to the Netherlands at the moment. I hope this is restored soon because I would love their print service for my 60 x 90 cm wall decoration prints.

Thanks a lot for reading! I hope you’ve enjoyed this review and that it may be of any help if you’re looking for a place to get your photos printed. I would highly recommend Saal-Digital and I hope they will support larger formats soon!

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I would again like to thank Cody Fjeldsted for proofreading my article! Your help is awesome, thanks so much.