A Dubai mall shopfit or a hotel lobby on Sheikh Zayed Road is built from real materials — acrylic, timber, marble, leather — not printed vinyl standing in for them. Sun Studio, a direct UV printing studio in Al Quoz, Dubai, prints straight onto four of those materials: acrylic, wood and MDF, stone and marble, and leather. Each has its own service page and machine, and each states the same rule: no screen or plate to make, so there is no minimum order.
Acrylic: reverse-printed panels up to 4 x 8ft
Sun Studio prints acrylic on a Direct Color Systems UV84 flatbed with "a 4 x 8 ft bed, so panels up to that size print in one pass rather than tiled," the page says. Artwork can go on the front face or be reverse-printed through clear acrylic with a white backing layer so the image reads correctly through the sheet. There is no minimum order, and a single photo print is "ready in one to three working days," the page's FAQ says.
Three of its own projects appear on the page: an office gallery wall of landmark prints reverse-printed on 10mm acrylic and hung salon style, with Sun Studio supplying the acrylic, framing and print; a model base for Etihad Rail, with the terrain of the UAE printed onto one oval acrylic panel and the relief built up in raised ink; and Luminous Shadow in Al Ain, cut and printed acrylic letterforms for an Abu Dhabi Art commission that stood outdoors from November 2025 to April 2026.
Wood and MDF: from a single panel to a full fit-out
On wood and MDF printing, the studio's IQDEMY EVO 2500 is "a belt flatbed 2.5 metres wide with no machine limit on length," the page says. There is no minimum: "one panel is a normal job, and so is a package of panels for a fit-out." Boards range from MDF — "the most common by far" — to primed and sealed MDF, where "the sealer gives a uniform, non-absorbent ground, so colour sits on top instead of soaking in," to raw MDF, veneer, plywood and laminated board; smaller pieces such as wooden awards print too. One material is turned away: "oil, wax and silicone polish sit between the ink and the wood and are a common cause of adhesion failure," the page says.
Stone and marble: printing so the veining still shows
For stone and marble, Sun Studio runs two flatbeds: the larger UV84 for stone panels and plaques, and a smaller UV44 that "takes objects up to 30 cm tall." It prints on marble, granite, limestone, travertine and engineered stone, with no minimum order — "one plaque or a full set of cladding panels," the page says. Sun Studio does not quarry, cut or sell stone itself; a fabricator or supplier delivers finished pieces to Al Quoz for printing.
Printing without a white base lets the veining and colour show through, which the page calls "usually the reason to print on marble at all"; white goes down first when a design needs its own colour instead. A sealed surface complicates the job, because "the ink bonds to the sealer and not to the stone." Its named example is a Nike retail display: a product name and tagline printed in black onto the grey marble half of a display block whose other half is rubber, printed whole on the UV44 after the two halves were joined.
Leather: covers and raised logos, never embossed
On leather printing, also printed on the UV84, there is again no minimum: "there is no screen, plate or die to make, so we print a single cover, a short personalised run or a full corporate order," the page says — though genuine leather is always tested on a sample first, since grain, absorbency and finish vary from one hide to the next. Suede and nubuck are possible, but "fine detail softens," the page warns.
The page is explicit that this is not embossing, debossing, foil stamping or laser marking: those press, heat-stamp or burn a mark into the hide, while UV printing lays full-colour ink on the surface, carrying photographs a die cannot reproduce. A raised logo is ink "built up in layers of ink so it can be felt as well as seen" — on the surface, not pressed into the leather. Products include notebook and diary covers, folders, menu covers and upholstery pieces; its own examples, shown without a named client, are a rose pattern and a dinner-party painting, both printed onto leather in Al Quoz. One caution: a cover that folds daily puts the cured ink under repeated strain, so Sun Studio recommends rigid panels or areas away from the fold instead.
Why one studio covers all four materials
What lets one workshop take on acrylic, timber, stone and leather is the process itself. Hongchuan Digital, an industrial-printing trends article published in September 2026, lists UV printing's reach across materials including acrylic, glass, metal, wood, leather and ceramic from essentially the same ink and curing process, noting that "this flexibility allows manufacturers to use one printing platform for multiple business applications," though different materials need different configurations.
That flexibility has a market to serve. TechSci Research, in a report published in June 2026, sizes the UAE's interior fit-out market at USD 2.89 billion in 2025, projected to reach USD 4.54 billion by 2031 at a 7.82 percent compound annual growth rate — the retail counters, hotel lobbies and offices that give printed acrylic, wood, stone and leather somewhere to go once they leave Al Quoz.
Equipment, project and service details in this article are as published by Sun Studio at the time of writing.
Frequently asked questions
What is Sun Studio?
Sun Studio is a direct UV printing studio in Al Quoz, Dubai, founded in 2011, according to its about page. It says it belongs to a Dubai-founded group of companies that includes PRO TECHnology, founded in 1998, alongside EVO, HawaQ, PRONEXT and xAIa.
Can Sun Studio print directly onto acrylic, wood, stone and leather without vinyl or lamination?
Yes. Its pages describe UV ink printed straight onto each material and cured in place — "no applied vinyl and nothing laminated on top," as the acrylic page puts it — with the equivalent process described for wood, stone and leather.
Is there a minimum order for printing on these materials?
No, on all four pages. Acrylic and wood both call one panel "a normal job"; stone says "one plaque or a full set of cladding panels"; leather will print "a single cover, a short personalised run or a full corporate order."
Does printing cover up the wood grain or stone veining?
Not necessarily. On marble, Sun Studio can print without a white base so the veining shows through the artwork, or lay white down first when a design needs its own colour. On wood, the same choice applies: whether the grain should show through or be covered decides whether white ink goes down first, the wood and MDF page says.
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