Alot people email me asking 'why should I buy a bumper sticker from you when I can just print them up myself?'. It's an often asked and valid question, the answer is simple: even if you find the inkjet vinyl, homemade stickers from typical inkjet printers will fade from UV light in only a few weeks (and bumper stickers from sticker paper will only last until the first rainy day!)
This is because for the vast majority of personal inkjet printers, the ink is an aqueous based dye ink. It is an indoor ink. You can't make an indoor ink into an outdoor ink, period. UV coating the stickers will not change that.
If ink is to be used, then solvent based pigmented inks that are available on the more expensive wide-format printers will last much longer, and are designed for outdoor displays. In addition if you're lucky enough to have a color laser printer that too will do the job, however you probably wouldn't be able to print on the vinyl that is widely available, a poly material is more suited to that and b/w laser printers.
In any case, by the time you buy a color laser printer, or a pigment ink based printer and the uv coating, it will have cost an arm and a leg! Better to order your stickers online with stickers.2ya.com and save yourself alot of time and money. I've been printing bumper stickers for 10 years and have made all of the mistakes and encountered all of the problems with outdoor digital printing, so if you want a custom bumper sticker that will last order from me and you won't be disappointed!
-Chris Shelley, Stickers.2ya.com
