Signage Education | Banner Basics

Banners are one of the most often requested sign types at Spectrum Signs. Banners are portable, economical and easy to display. In this week’s article we’ll define common terms used in banner fabrication and offer tips to help you select the right product and minimize the associated cost.

Banner Terminology

• Hem – The edges of your banner are folded over and either taped, welded or sewn to give the edges additional strength. A taped banner hem uses strong, double sided tape designed specifically for banner hemming. Welding requires the application of heat to melt the vinyl banner material. Sewing typically involves a double lock stitch sewn by a machine specifically for this purpose. The banner’s hem gives the grommets additional material to grip so they’re less likely to pull through the material.
• Grommets – Grommets are metal eyelets installed in the banner’s hem that allow you to hang the banner with hooks, nails, screws, clips or bungee cords.
• Weight – A banner’s weight is frequently thought of as the thickness of the material. The term actually refers to the actual weight of a square foot of the material. A lighter weight banner is generally thinner than its heavier counterpart. The thickness of banner material needed will be dependent on the intended location. For indoor use, a lighter weight, 10 oz. banner material may be suitable. Some lightweight materials will be somewhat translucent, so consider what will be behind your indoor banner. A dark color behind a lightweight banner may affect the visual appearance of your design. For outdoor banners, a 13 oz. banner material is most commonly used, though heavier materials are available.
• Pole Pockets – Pole pockets are pockets created by folding and stitching an edge of a banner to form a pocket. This pocket allows insertion of a pole or dowel as an alternative means of mounting and displaying a banner.
• Webbing – Webbing is a cloth-like or nylon material similar to the material used to make seat belts. This material is sewn into the banner hems to provide additional strength, and to resist stretching and tearing of your banner.
• Wind Slits – Wind slits are cuts made through the banner material to allow wind to pass through the banner. The use of wind slits and their benefits are widely argued. In general, we do not recommend the use of wind slits in most situations. These half-moon shaped slits can adversely affect your design and the message being presented. The reduction in wind loading is not as great as you might think, but if you feel they’re warranted, a mesh material would likely be a better option.

Banner Types
We offer two basic types of banners, vinyl lettered and full color digitally printed banners. Your banner’s design content will influence which type of banner is suitable. If the content is relatively simple, lettering and simple vector graphics in limited colors, we can make your banner with adhesive vinyl film that’s cut with a computer-controlled plotter and applied to a banner blank.

Considering the typical coverage area of banners made from vinyl film, the material costs are less than that of a digitally printed banner. However, as the coverage or number of colors needed increases, the labor to design, cut, weed, tape, register and apply vinyl film increases. For digitally printed banners, the entire design is printed with little or no operator intervention. Adding additional colors does not increase the labor a bit. Once your design is completed, it can be printed directly, and the only remaining labor is to hem and add grommets.

In summary, for all but the simplest of lettered banners, digitally printed banners are an economical and more versatile alternative.

Banner Design
If you’ll be designing your own banner, consider consulting your sign manufacturer in advance for required format as well as tips, limitations and lead time needed. In general, vector-based art is preferred. Bitmaps should be of sufficient size and resolution to print well at the banner’s target size.

If the size of your artwork will be considerable, inquire about options for artwork submission. At Spectrum Signs, we can accept email up to 15MB; any larger files can be submitted on USB key, CD, DVD, via our FTP site or via one of the many drop box services available.

Don’t use images captured from websites. These images are small, low resolution and use compression to optimize for display and minimize the time to download for presentation in your web browser.

Avoid compression. JPG compression is great for video display as it can reduce an image’s size considerably. But this compression comes at a cost. Artifacts introduced by JPG compression may be clearly visible when printed. If you must use compression, favor image quality over a smaller file size.

The artwork you provide should match the proportions (ratio of height to width) of your actual banner. Though this may seem obvious to many, we’ve seen issues often enough that it’s worth mentioning.

If you are not a graphics artist with experience in design signage, you may be better off having your sign manufacturer design your banner for you. Though there’s a cost associated, they have access to resources, fonts, clip-art, tips, tricks and knowledge that make it easy to justify the expense. In doing so, the investment in your banner is maximized by ensuring that your message is attractive, legible, and memorable.

Lead Time
At Spectrum Signs, most banners are completed the same, or next business day. However, some banner types and fabrication options will add significantly to the lead time needed, so it’s always safest to inquire well in advance to ensure your deadline is met. Providing sufficient lead time may offer additional fabrication options and minimize cost.

About Spectrum Signs
Spectrum Signs is an independent, locally owned, full service sign manufacturing company located in south Orange County – Mission Viejo, California. We are affiliated with over 240 independent sign companies with access to resources nationwide. This affiliation provides significant discounts from sign suppliers, and allows us to offer competitive pricing without compromising in quality and service.

For more information, contact:

Spectrum Signs
23382 Madero Suite L
Mission Viejo, CA 92691
(949) 297-3800