Print onto any clear adhesive, like address lables, backwards and reversed ..........(mirror image). When you place on glass and read through it, it will be the correct image. You can cover the printed surface with another blank to protect the printing.

Here's a good article on the subject.

http://www.signindustry.com/installation/articles/2004-02-02-JL-VinylToGlass.php3

If the window is exposed to sunlight, take particular care. Dark colors in sunlight are deadly to expensive plate glass. I lost an 8'X10' display window once because a painted tempera advertisement absorbed sunlight, heated the window unevenly, and cracked it. Fortunately, it didn't break and fall out. Good luck.

GA. perforated films, IMHO, would be applicable to OP's requirement.

here in the UAE, you'll find lots of 'em on buses, trucks, the glass windows of which are exposed to sunlight almost constantly at day time. of course, OP needs to take into account the *type* of glass he's applying this to.

good reference material there, too!

"a painted tempera advertisement absorbed sunlight, heated the window unevenly, and cracked it."

no air conditioning inside (behind the glass)? the AC could have prevented the glass from overheating.

What you are looking for is a clear double sided Pressure Sensitive Adhesive film. Lots of people make them, 3M is one of the largest manufacturers. I'm sure google can be your friend.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&hs=toQ&q=double+sided+clear+vinyl+pressure+Sensitive+adhesive&btnG=Search&aq=f&oq=&aqi=

3M is definitely the way to go. They make a 1mil adhesive between two carrier sheets that is easy to apply and quite tenacious.

If its not a one off here's the way I would do it. We have these thin plastic films that we stick to the inside of widows to stop birds flying through. They are quiet soft and adhere by electrostatic, I think. They are washable in soap water and can be easily removed ,which is usually done when the widows need cleaning. I don't no of the name but they are like soft PVC pads and quiet thin. The ones we have could be called stick on lead-light, stained glass widow thingos. They can be printed on and these we have since years now. Hope this or google helps, Ky.

If the original was printed by a laser printer (which uses heat to attach the toner to the medium), then you can use heat and pressure to attach the printed vinyl to the glass. The toner itself will be the adhesive.

I use this method, with special toner-transfer paper, to attach the toner to copper on fiberglass, in the process of making one-off printed circuits.

You would have to be careful to heat the glass uniformly, to avoid cracking the glass.

As mentioned in a previous post, the image would be printed as a mirror image, if the plastic is toward the viewer, or printed normally, if the image is to be viewed through the glass.

"UV cured conformal coatings" seems to be adhesive exactly meant for your application especially because you are trying to bond to a transparent material like glass.

Google search will lead you to exact type of adhesive to meet your requirements with the wealth of technical data.

Good luck!

Most plastic films are applied with just water. Once the water dries the bond is pretty good. The printing must not be on the side of the plastic against the glass.

ozzb, your close. window film like tint and others they use a water/soap solution to float the film onto the glass and to position it. the excess water/soap is then squeegee out and it's the small amount of soap left that acts like the glue.

On water only films they already have something coating that reacts with the water a lot like soap.

Charles

Installed plastic welding screen material on door window of our shop with just water. Has been on there for 4 yrs. Have not had any problems with it coming off. There was no adhesive on the plastic.

Adhesive would be hard to work with unless they have long cure time. They could also distort the image and yellow in time.

Many thanks all. Great help, important lesson about the dark vinyl absorbing heat and cracking the window!

I need the vinyl to be stuck hard to the glass.

The glass is only 10cm x 10cm.

The best solution seems to be the reverse printing then placing aother layer on top.

Any other plastics than vinyl?

Any particular adhesive that will alllow positioning before becoming too strong to remove?

All eyes and ears. Thanks.

AH! If it is only 10cm square, then just use a laser printer to print the image on Mylar or velum, and use an ordinary (clothing) iron to press it onto the glass. As I indicated previously, the laser toner is a thermoplastic, which acts as a self-adhesive. Since the image would be on the glass side of the plastic, and viewed through the glass, it would NOT need to be printed in reverse.

If the non-printed regions don't need to be transparent, you could just print on paper, and iron the paper onto the glass.

If the non-printed regions do need to be transparent, you could print on this paper, iron the paper onto the glass, then soak in water to remove the paper, leaving the image on the back of the glass. This would only be acceptable if the back side of the glass is in a protected area - otherwise the image could eventually get scratched off. It would require a little experimentation to determine the correct timing, pressure, and temperature settings of the iron for best results. Many print shops have hot presses for this purpose; if you know someone at a print shop, this would be preferable to the home iron.