Putting Graphics on Large Vinyl Banners

Adding full color images to large vinyl banners will give your banner designs with more impact and a much more high quality appearance. Putting a full color photograph on your display banner is usually the easiest and best way to do this.

When you want to add a photo or graphic image to a vinyl banner design, you should keep a number of things in mind. In order to look crisp and clear it must be saved in the most appropriate resolution. For most large display projects such as popup displays, vinyl banners, window graphics and graphic backdrops, a resolution of about 100 ppi (pixels per inch) at full size is sufficient.

In other words if you have an image that is 8″ x 10″ with a resplution of 300 ppi - a standard resolution used for offset printing - then you can comfortably increase its size about 24″ x 30″. That will give you a finished resolution of 100 ppi. In fact you can go as low as 50 ppi and still get good quality output, because these projects are normally designed for viewing from a distance of at least 10 feet away.

Second, you should almost always brighten up the colors of your images. You can usually do this by increasing the contrast. If you use Photoshop the easiest way to do this is by “pinching” the levels controls. Open the levels control window and pull the shadows (dark shades) control towards the middle (to the right). Then pull the highlights control to the left. This will brighten your light colors and darken your dark colors while eliminating some of the “mudiness” of the middle tones.

You can also brighten your photos by “sharpening” them. Your images will normally appear much crisper and sharper when you “punch them up” with a bit of sharpening. But don’t sharpen them too much.

Finally, it is best to work in CMYK mode rather than RGB. Vinyl banners are just about always printed on CMYK printing machines with solvent inks. Rather than counting on the printing device to convert your RGB files (RGB is the default color system used on the computer) convert your images yourself so you know what you are going to get. RGB can be somewhat misleading since it can display more colors than can be printed by CMYK.

What that means is that there are colors you can see on a computer monitor that you simply cannot reproduce with CMYK inks especially not with solvent based inks on a material like vinyl. You might as well know this before you get the printing done. If it is necessary to create a specific color and if you have time a proof can be produced on the actual vinyl banner material to give you a clear picture of how the finished product will look when printed.

Another important point to be aware of is that the choice of ink will have an impact on the quality of the job. Outdoor projects should be printed with true solvent inks because they are best for full color printing intended for use in harsh sunlight or other potentially harmful weather conditions such as rain or snow.

Unlike water-based inks, solvent inks do not fade as quickly when exposed to UV rays, and stand up to wind and rain much better. Non solvent inks will usuallyfade much more quickly in bright sunlight. Even for indoor projects it is often better to use solvent-based inks because they produce a much more durable final result. This is especially important for applications like trade show banners or event backdrops which will be rolled and unrolled many times, and be handled a lot.

For more advice on producing graphics for trade shows and displays contact the large format printing experts at TradeShow-Display-Experts.com

- Richard Hendershot

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