It's called a "melamine" surface, and usually coated onto a piece of 1/8" Masonite.
Most often it's sold as "shower board." (But we used to build our entire video stores with it, made REALLY cool looking walls, easy to clean, held poster/marketing materials well.)
We currently use "white walls" of this material for ideas. You can mount this right onto drywall. There are plastic pieces that will hold it flat, but the best way is to use construction adhesive so it doesn't ripple. and NEVER, NEVER, use it on open studs.
You can try using "Goo gone" to remove the permanent ink.
(I'm not making that up, it's really called "goo Gone." It just sounds funny in an adult environment.
