A wood printer is a UV LED flatbed printer. It jets ink straight onto the board and cures it under UV light in the same pass, so the piece comes off the bed dry. No transfer paper, no heat press, no screens to reclaim.
Direct Color Systems, of Rocky Hill, Connecticut, makes four of them. Each prints full color and opaque white directly onto wood, and takes stock up to 7″ thick on the UV-21MP and up to 12″ on the UV-32MP, UV-44DTS and UV-84DTS Gen2.
Yes. The ink is jetted onto the surface and cured on contact, so nothing soaks in and nothing is left to dry. DCS UV LED inks — IR2, IRF4, IRF6 and IRF6T white — bind to many substrates with no pre-coating, and a low-odor adhesion promoter is available for surfaces that resist ink. Grain, sealer and stain all change how a board takes ink, so test the exact stock you plan to sell before you quote a run.
On dark and stained wood the white ink matters more than the color. The DCS white UV LED ink prints opaque and bright on dark substrates, and it lays down as an underbase, so the CMYK above it reads as the color you sent rather than the color plus the wood. Clear ink adds a gloss or matte finish and another layer of durability.
Bed size and Z-axis clearance decide this, not resolution. Measure the largest wood piece you print today, then the tallest one you currently turn away.
A 17″ × 24″ (44 × 61 cm) print area with fully adjustable height for stock up to 7″ (18 cm), running 4.5 m²/hr — 48.4 ft²/hr across the full bed at six passes. Chromasphere print technology with stainless steel industrial printheads, pressurized ink delivery, an integrated vacuum table and crash detection, driven by Color Byte 12. This is the machine for coasters, plaques, small signage and promotional wood in a shop with no floor space to give up. UV-21MP specifications.
A 24″ × 36″ (60 × 90 cm) print area and a descending table that takes stock up to 12″ (30 cm) — the same clearance as the two big machines, in a bench-sized footprint. Six-pass speed is 5 m²/hr — 60 ft²/hr full bed, with Color Byte 12, vacuum table, crash detection and TEXTUR3D. Choose it when the wood is thick rather than wide: box lids, blocks, turned pieces and assembled items. UV-32MP specifications.
A 4′ × 4′ (130 × 130 cm) print area, 12″ (30.48 cm) of Z-axis height, Ricoh Gen6 industrial printheads on a double gantry, and pin registration for repeat placement job after job. A 6″ × 8″ ADA/braille sign prints in under 1 minute 30 seconds; a full 4′ × 4′ of TEXTUR3D takes 45 minutes. Ships with a computer and monitor set up for Color Byte 11. UV-44DTS specifications.
A 4′ × 8′ (120 × 243 cm) print area with the same 12″ (30.48 cm) Z-axis height, Ricoh Gen6 printheads, double gantry and pin registration. A full 4′ × 8′ of TEXTUR3D takes 60 minutes. This is the model for full-sheet wood signage and for any job where the sheet, not the part, sets the size. UV-84DTS Gen2 specifications.
All four sit on the flatbed UV printer page if you want them side by side.
Finished wood takes ink well: plywood, MDF, birch, maple, walnut and bamboo, along with painted, stained and pre-sealed blanks. Raw, open-grain, oily and waxy surfaces behave less predictably, which is the reason for the sample. The wood work shown on this page is signage, plaques, coasters and cornhole boards; the same machines also print name badges, awards and industrial parts.
Raised work is a separate capability and it runs on the same printer. TEXTUR3D prints clear, white and color channels together in a single pass, so a tactile logo, a wood-grain feel or an ADA-compliant braille dot comes off the bed with the flat print rather than in a second operation.
A laser engraver removes material. It burns a mark into the surface in a single tone, and the color is whatever the scorch and the species give you. A UV LED wood printing machine adds material instead: CMYK plus opaque white, photographic detail, and the hundredth piece matching the first.
A screen press needs a screen per color and a setup per job. That is efficient at a thousand identical units and unworkable at one. A wood printer has no setup between jobs — you send the next file — which is what makes one-off, personalized and variable-data wood work worth quoting.
None of that makes a laser the wrong tool. Cutting, deep engraving and single-color marks on bare hardwood are still a laser's job. Color on wood is not.
DCS does not publish list prices for the Direct Jet line, so this page does not carry one. What moves the number is bed size, Z-axis clearance, the ink set you specify (white and clear use channels that CMYK-only machines do not), whether you need TEXTUR3D, and any custom jigs for the parts you hold. Each model page above carries a request link for current pricing.
Financing is available in the USA. See commercial printer leasing and financing for the program DCS works with.
Do you have to prime or coat wood first? Not for most finished wood. DCS UV LED inks bind to many substrates with no pre-coating, and a low-odor adhesion promoter handles the surfaces that fight it. Test the stock before you commit a run.
Can you print white on dark or stained wood? Yes. The white ink is opaque and bright on dark substrates, and it doubles as the underbase that keeps the color above it accurate.
How thick can the wood be? Up to 7″ (18 cm) on the UV-21MP, and up to 12″ (30.48 cm) on the UV-32MP, UV-44DTS and UV-84DTS Gen2. Height is fully adjustable on all four, so a 3/4″ panel and a 6″ block run on the same machine.
Can it print raised or textured wood? Yes, with TEXTUR3D, in a single pass alongside the flat print.
What software runs it? Color Byte RIP — version 12 on the MP series, version 11 on the DTS series.
Use the sample request form on this page to ask DCS for a printed wood sample, or open the model page you have shortlisted and request current pricing. If you want the process end to end before you compare machines, read the guide to how to print on wood.
Always test new substrates for image accuracy and durability.
