Gobo Materials

Gobos are made from a variety of materials for different purposes. Almost always design dictates the appropriate gobo material used. In regards to pricing, the cheapest gobos are made of steel and the most expensive gobos are full color glass.

Transparency Gobo or Plastic Gobo *Most Popular*

Transparency gobos or plastic gobo discs are used in our latest cutting edge technology LED gobo projector lights. Transparency gobo media allow for the same quality as our glass gobos, extremely quick turnaround times (same day), at the lowest price possible.

Using a special high temperature plastic film, images are printed directly onto a plastic disc using a special high resolution printer. Our proprietary production process offers the clearest gobos at the highest resolution.

The only negative with transparency gobos is their relative short performance life <50 hours so they are not suitable for long term commercial installations. They are also not as pretty as our glass gobos and are not as suitable as a keepsake. Most of our clients, transparency is a fantastic option that gives them the quality of glass at a price lower than a steel gobo.

Steel Gobo

Steel gobo’s literally have the design cut through a piece of metal. Cut out portions allow light to project through. Steel gobos are limited in the quality of many designs. Letters like (A,O,R,P,Q,B,4,6,8,9) need to include a connecting piece of metal or numerous pieces of connecting metal to form the letters correctly.

The graphic to the right shows the exact same design, one for glass and one in metal. Note how in the metal design the month and date is hard to read because of the metal required to hold the design in place.

Glass – Black and White

Glass gobos offer the ability to project complex and intricate designs with ease. Glass gobos feature the design physically printed on a piece of high temperature glass using a high temperature silver mirror finish. This allows for clean, elegant designs and for a much more polished finished projection.

Glass – Grayscale

Grayscale glass gobos offer the ability to print varying shades of light transmission on the glass. This allows for even more detail than black and white glass gobos and allows for complex images with shading. When used in conjunction with a color gel grayscale glass gobos allow a lot of flexibility with the final design.

Glass – Color

Depending on the detail of a design, there are a few options with color glass gobos. Generally there are 1-color, 2-color, 3-color, and full color options. These gobos feature the color printed directly onto the glass. Each color has to be printed separately using a special template for each color. This process makes color glass gobos the most expensive option. Full color glass gobos are printed onto the glass all at once and allow for the projection of full color photos and very detailed images where color is important.