The Maker’s Toolbox: Procolored V11 Pro DTO UV Printer Review

UV printing is an awesome technology, because it works on just about any material. But it is hard to find affordable prosumer/professional printers. So I was happy to say “yes” when Procolored reached out and asked if I’d like to review their V11 Pro DTO/DTF UV printer, which starts at $5,999.

The ultraviolet elephant in the room

Many of you will have read my recent review of the eufyMake E1, which is the first consumer UV DTO/DTF printer to hit the market. It is significantly cheaper than the Procolored V11 Pro and my review of it was very positive overall.

So how does the V11 Pro fit in? This is a much more business-oriented machine. It was engineered with long-term maintenance and ink costs in mind.

Where the eufyMake E1 has expensive proprietary cartridges, the V11 Pro has bottles you can refill with any ink you want. If the E1’s printhead clogs, it isn’t clear yet how you can replace it or how much that will cost. If one of the V11 Pro’s printheads clogs, you can order a replacement from any supplier and swap it out pretty easily.

Those were the concerns brought up most often by commenters on my videos about the E1 and they’re valid. For those people, a higher initial price tag could make sense if the plan is to run the machine day in and day out for years. I wanted to see if the V11 Pro would satisfy those people.

Viruses

I’m putting this section high up in the review, because it is very important. The software supplied by Procolored is crawling with viruses.

No, that isn’t hyperbole. No, these aren’t harmless “viruses” that malware detectors flag as “risks” but that don’t really matter. These are real, serious viruses–something that feels crazy to say when reviewing a product. I can honestly state this isn’t an issue I’ve ever experienced when conducting a review before.

I first noticed this when I started installing the software on the USB thumb drive Procolored supplied with the printer. One of those was the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable in a zip folder. But as soon as I unzipped it, Windows Defender quarantined the files and informed me that it found a Floxif virus.

I thought that was really strange, but wasn’t ready to condemn Procolored quite yet. That particular software is readily available from Microsoft themselves, so I just downloaded an official copy and proceeded.

Then, I ran into an issue with PrintExp, which is the control software for the printer. I thought my copy might be the problem, so I downloaded a fresh copy from the Procolored website. Their website linked to a mega.nz folder with the software.

I bet you can guess what happened next: Google Chrome blocked the download because it detected a virus. That was an autorun worm.

At that point, it was obvious something fishy was going on, so I did some quick searches and found that many owners of Procolored machines have reported finding viruses, too.

I asked my Procolored contact (who works for a separate agency) about this and they directed me to the Procolored technical support chat. The support rep denied the existence of any viruses and claimed this was a mistake–some kind of false positive.

That wasn’t a satisfactory answer, of course. But I’m not one to throw around accusations without being sure, so I went and asked some experts on Reddit.

Several people were kind enough to investigate and analyze the available software. All of them reported that there were, indeed, many viruses and that a lot of them were very serious.

Karsten Hahn, Principle Malware Researcher at G DATA CyberDefense, said “I checked the files yesterday and found several files with XRed backdoor and a malicious Coinminer. There is no doubt that several files provided in the download section are malicious.”

I tried to think of some way to give Procolored the benefit of the doubt, but I can’t come up with an explanation that is acceptable.

Since I brought his up, Procolored claims they investigated the issue. Here is a photo showing the official explanation:

They also removed the mega.nz download link from their website.

I asked Hahn about their explanation, and he wasn't buying it.

I have since been given another explanation and this one feels more likely:

5/17/25Update: Hahn complete a very thorough investigation into this issue and you can read his informative analysis here: https://www.gdatasoftware.com/blog/2025/05/38200-printer-infected-software-downloads

If you own a Procolored printer or are considering purchasing one, I highly recommend that you read that article.

It is also worth noting that I contacted Procolored support four times over the course of my testing, for help with figuring out the software and settings. Every single time, the agent requested multiple times that I allow them to connect remotely to my computer. Obviously, I declined every time. But I want to note that they kept asking. Do with that information what you will.

Moving on

I considered concluding my testing there, without ever actually printing anything. But I was able to find versions of the necessary software that didn’t include any reported viruses, and ran those on an isolated PC.

I chose to proceed with this review because, based on the research I did, many owners are willing to overlook the viruses. Presumably, doing what I did and running the software on isolated computers (I hope).

However, don’t take this to mean that I’m suggesting that the virus situation isn’t serious. It is–very much so.

Software

The software you need to use the Procolored V11 Pro is okay. It isn’t great and it isn’t very intuitive, but it works.

There are two separate programs you need: PrintExp and Pro RIP.

As far as I can tell, Procolored did not create PrintExp and other manufacturers use it, too. PrintExp is what actually controls the printer hardware. Many of its settings are cryptic, but the basic functions are straightforward enough and you shouldn’t need to tweak much for normal use.

Pro RIP is Procolored’s own software (I think). It is where you set up your art and set up the configuration of print jobs on a high level, such as where it will print white and varnish.

When you want to print something, you start in Pro RIP. You set your canvas size and then place your art. If you want, you can adjust the white and varnish coverage. Then you “RIP” the design and it spits out a print file.

From there, you open that print file in PrintExp, which will control the V11 Pro to print out your design.

I would prefer if you could do everything in one piece of software and if that software was a bit more user-friendly, but switching between the two isn’t that big of a deal.

And, more importantly, they do allow the user to customize pretty much everything, such as color profiles and print behavior. That’s a big deal for anything beyond hobby printing, because accurate colors are often critical.

In contrast, eufyMake Studio is much more pleasant, polished, and user-friendly. But it doesn’t give you any real control over the particulars, like how the printhead is actually mixing colors. Together, PrintExp and Pro RIP do give you that control — assuming you know what you’re doing.

Hardware

The Procolored V11 Pro is a big, sturdy, and heavy unit.

The eufyMake E1 is mostly plastic (though nice plastic) and feels like the consumer-grade device that it is. The Procolored V11 Pro, on the other hand, is large metal machine. It feels like it was built to see years of use and abuse in a shop setting.

Mine arrived in a huge wooden crate on a pallet. I believe the shipping weight was well over 200 pounds and most of that was the V11 Pro itself. And keep in mind that the V11 Pro’s maximum print size is actually a bit smaller than the E1’s. If the eufyMake E1 is a Tesla Model 3, the V11 Pro is a John Deere tractor.

And I think the V11 Pro is a pretty attractive machine. I like the white-painted steel panels and the contrasting translucent blue windows.

Those windows, by the way, are very handy. They give you a great view of what’s happening inside, which I really liked.

To get to the ink bottles, you just lift the lid on the bank. They’re all sitting right where you an access them easily. When you run low, just pull the corresponding bottle out, unscrew the cap, and pour in new ink. Done!

The controls are basic, but work just fine. You have physical buttons to move the bed (in and out, and up and down), and buttons for functions like turning on the rotary attachment. There is a laser sensor to prevent collisions if the object on the bed is too tall.

The rotary attachment and jigs are just as sturdy as the rest of the machine. They can take some abuse and you don’t have to treat them delicately.

My only real complaint about the hardware is that it isn’t easy to align things on the bed.

For example, the rotary attachment just sits on the bed and you hold it in place with magnets. Where exactly should you position it? Well, you have to figure that out for yourself through experimentation. I performed something like five prints to get the positioning right, then scribed a line on the bed so I could find that position again in the future.

The same is true for the regular mat and the fixtures. It would have been nice if Procolored had provided locating features.

Print quality

Before I go further, I should state that I’m not an expert on UV printing — or any kind of printing (other than 3D printing). The eufyMake E1 was the first UV printer I used and that’s my point of comparison.

Alright, with that disclaimer out of the way, I will say that the Procolored V11 Pro’s print quality looks great to me.

I printed on several different materials and they all looked really nice. The colors were consistent and vibrant, with good coverage. And the varnish gloss protects the prints and gives them a more premium feel.

My wife, who doesn’t know anything about technology, kept saying how impressed she was with the prints. And she approved several of them to hang on our walls. If that doesn’t tell you what potential customers will think, I don’t know what will.

Printing on cylindrical objects also worked well, once I figured out the positioning and how to activate the function (tip: push the “cylinder” button, which I somehow missed).

The V11 Pro is also capable of DTF printing, for stickers and such. But I wasn’t able to test that feature, as I didn’t receive the laminator.

The only quality issues I ran into were when the machine had been off for a while (such as overnight). The ink can clog up a bit and you need to do a cleaning process, followed by a couple of prints to get everything flowing nicely. Until then, it will sometimes have noticeable lines, because the jets aren’t spraying well.

That leads me to…

Maintenance

This isn’t unique to Procolored or the V11 Pro, but UV printers are a pain to maintain. eufyMake put a great deal of effort into making maintenance easier for the consumer market, but it is still yet to be seen whether or not that worked. I’ve personally had issues with clogging when I leave the eufyMake E1 off for a while.

The V11 Pro has white ink circulation and a head cleaning system, with a waste ink tank and that seems to work well enough. But you will have to pay attention to maintenance.

The most important maintenance is running the machine daily — even if it is just to do a print check. You have to avoid leaving it sitting for long periods of time. That usually isn’t an issue for professional shops, but it can be a hassle for people who print less frequently. And it does mean you’ll be using a little bit of ink each day (true for all UV printers, including the eufyMake E1).

On the plus side, the V11 Pro uses readily available heads (Epson TX800) and they’re easy to get to. On all UV printers, printheads are considered consumable. So, being able to get to them and replace them is a big deal.

Other than ink costs (which are much, much lower than the eufyMake), that printhead replacement is probably the single biggest advantage of the Procolored V11 Pro. We don’t know yet how much replacement printheads for the E1 will be or how available they’ll be. But with the Procolored V11 Pro, you can be confident that you’ll be able to get printheads for decades.

Conclusion and recommendations

In my opinion, the Procolored V11 Pro has very respectable hardware. It is built like an Abrams and the print quality is great. And everything is accessible and user-replaceable, which is critical for the inevitable long-term maintenance.

The software is acceptable, despite being pretty unintuitive. Once you learn how to perform the basic functions, which you can do in a couple of hours, you’ll be able to starting printing. And you can tweak every parameter, if you ever want to fine-tune things.

And unlike with eufyMake, there aren’t any ongoing software/subscription costs and you don’t need to connect to the internet. If Procolored went out of business tomorrow, you’d be able to keep using the V11 Pro indefinitely.

But then there are the viruses. Hopefully Procolored will address all of those as they promised. But buyers should still run full scans and, ideally, set up the software on dedicated, isolated computers.

If it weren't for the virus situation, I would recommend this printer to small businesses and serious "prosumer" hobbyists. As it stands, I am reluctant to do that until Procolored proves that the virus risk has been eliminated.

5/22/25 Update:

Procolored got in touch to provide a comprehensive response. Here is there official statement in their own words:

Hi，Cameron

We’re glad to get in touch with you again. Recently, we’ve come across some media reports discussing potential unknown risks related to Procolored software. We wanted to take this opportunity to share with you Procolored’s latest official statement, which includes updates regarding our software versions and related matters.

1. Full Site Re-Verification

Out of an abundance of caution, we have rescanned and reverified all software available on our official site. All files are clean, as confirmed by VirusTotal and multiple third-party tools. GData’s own latest analysis also confirms that there is no current threat.

2. No Link to Cryptocurrency Activity

There is no connection between our software and any cryptocurrency theft. The malware's command-and-control servers have been offline since February 2024, making any remote activity impossible. We have not received any user complaints regarding crypto.

Some headlines may have led readers to believe that using Procolored software could result in Bitcoin theft. This is not the case—there is no direct cause-and-effect relationship, and we have never accessed or stolen any user's cryptocurrency.

3. Procolored’s Tech Analysis Details and Explanation

Following the incident, we conducted extensive security testing across our entire product line. The newly released software packages for the F8, F13, F13 Pro, V6, V11 Pro, and VF13 Pro models were comprehensively scanned using G Data and other mainstream antivirus engines. All current packages have been confirmed clean, with no viruses, malware, or unauthorized code present.

Additionally, hash value verification of the “PrintExp.exe” file was performed. The hash values matched exactly with those published on our official website, confirming that PrintExp.exe itself is safe, has not been tampered with, and is consistent with the official version.

4. Certified Software Provider

The drive "PrintEXP.exe" is provided by Shenzhen Hosonsoft Co., Ltd., a certified developer holding an ISO/IEC 27001 certification for information security. Their credentials are independently verifiable online, and we’ve attached the certification documents for reference.

5. Open to Independent Testing

If you or your team are interested in independently testing our machines or software, we would be happy to provide support and access.

6.Commitment to Customer Responsibility

As a growing company, product quality and customer satisfaction remain at the heart of our mission. We acknowledged that distributing software via USB lacked sufficient oversight in the past. Regardless of product ship dates or software versions, Procolored stands behind every customer. Our after-sales team is fully committed to resolving any software or hardware issue to customer satisfaction.

We also maintain a U.S.-based warehouse, subsidiary, and local engineering team to provide dependable support to our customers in North America.

This incident has led us to implement stricter internal controls for all future software releases, and we are using this opportunity to further strengthen our quality assurance processes.

7.Media Clarification Update

As part of our ongoing efforts, we’ve been proactively reaching out to media outlets to share our official clarification regarding this matter. Some platforms, such as SecurityWeekCryptoHead.io and CryptoHead.io, have already updated or removed their reports accordingly. Confirming there’s no connection between Procolored and any incidents of Bitcoin theft.

We would truly appreciate it if you might consider updating your article to include our latest statement as well.

Please feel free to reach out if you need any additional details or supporting materials — we’d be happy to assist. Thank you very much for your time and consideration, we truly appreciate your support.