I made a design for my new phone’s case, which had to be printed on a transparent medium to see the phone’s violet. I finally decided to take some time to show the results and what I gathered from all of this.

Originally, I was supposed to use the Flexicase from PrintAura. I had high expectations for this one. Here is what I received:

The FlexiCase proved to be not at all transparent. I still used one of the cases that I had received (I got two) for a month before going and print one at Printful; during this short lapse of time, became brown on the sides :

Then I received the one from Printful, and it was already 100 times better:

Takeaways

The design

The most obvious problem with the printing of design is the middle part: what happened?? The halftone all over the design looks well done (though tiny and odd) but the middle area has a big cluster.

By observing the difference between the “normal” halftone and the middle cluster, I noted the cluster starts where the pixels have become 100% white. I had made a spherical gradient from violet to white aligned on the center. The moment the cluster starts, the pixels were at their maximum whiteness.

It’s not possible to have “transparent white” in print. As the print system got to the 100% white pixels, but with transparency, it decided to put a white underbase to it.

All that to say, the white fucked it up. But it’s ok! Now I know. 😊

Print quality

Then, about the print quality itself, if we look at the part with the flowers on top, we can see a little of the white on which it is printed, but It’s really not so bad. It’s mostly little dots here and there on the borders.

Finally, the whole halftone was a bad idea, because semi-transparent pixels around the halftone dots were printed without underbase, while their center has white underbase. It gives a weird effect.

The quality was quite impressive for Printful’s case : after almost a year of use, the thin details are scratched, but the flower is intact. Or maybe it’s because it’s at the top of the design and that part of the phone is often outside my bag, away from the keys to scratch it. I don’t know.

Meanwhile, the quality of PrintAura’s case… is another story:

The main design white parts are completely gone. There’s obvious white under the flower at the top, all around the edge and corners.

Of course, the halftone is bad too, but I think it’s more of a design that just doesn’t work logistically with print-on-demand, and I also think PrintAura’s look better than Printful’s.

Durability

Obviously, the cases both protect the phone badly.

Accidents have confirmed my theory of the Buttered Toast effect: when the phone with a protective case falls on the floor, it is guaranteed to fall on its unprotected screen.

My screen is currently cracked pretty severely. I should have paid for the guarantees 😒 I am an irresponsible phone-mom, I know.

But it’s fine, it is still good looking on the Outside, and as it is the only thing that matters in this world, I’m okay with that. Things in life break.

My Printful case however did go brown on the sides as well. I started to notice around xmas, but it doesn’t show too much when it’s on the phone, because of the violet still showing through. On its own, however...

I also have some rain stains, however I’m too scared of removing more design by trying to wash it, and we can’t really see them without really looking, so it’s fine.

It’s hard to be always pretty.

Conclusion

The design is fine, and looks fine on the Samsung S9 violet phone.

In the case of Printful, the quality could have been better if I made thicker lines.

The FlexiCase is ugly. It was also pretty thick on my phone (not necessarily bad, since we are looking for a minimum of protection…) The print, however, was terrible, even if the lack of transparency is not taken into account. I wouldn’t trust it to print more designs on it, even full ones, in fear that the white disappears again.

I will try other products of The PrintAura? Yes. But I prefer Printful for now. I’m disappointed, though. I was expecting something great, and I had a weakling case.

In the meantime, I have a pretty phone case that allows my phone to shine: