Anything vector-based will work fine on a banner. Vector files can be scaled to ANY size with no loss of quality because vector images do not rely on pixels. EPS, Adobe Illustrator, and PDF files are good examples of typical vector-based artwork. This does not mean that all EPS, AI, or PDF files are vector-based… it is possible to embed low-resolution artwork within these files. For this reason, Half Price Banners provides a free Art Review service to let you know whether or not your artwork is suitable for your banner printing needs.

For any other file format, the higher the resolution of your image, the better. If you are using Half Price Banners, you can also visit two websites where you can find graphics that would work well on a banner: http://www.photos.com/ and http://www.clipart.com/. If you go with Clipart.com, make sure you select a graphic that has an EPS version. You don’t have to download these graphics yourself — Half Price Banners has memberships to both websites, so when you find graphics you want to put on your banner, just write down the image number.

Graphics that won’t work on a banner:

Almost any pictures you save from a website will not work, because they are already rasterized at a very small size. A raster image is made up out of pixels and dots, and once these pixels have been set, it is almost impossible to increase the size of the image without resulting in a noticeable loss of quality. By the time your banner printer enlarges a web image to fit on a banner, the image will be very pixellated or blurry. Similarly, art scanned from business cards will also be too small to use on a banner. If you only have small, low-resolution graphics, it would be best to go back to your original designer and have him/her make you a version just for banners. Or if you’re in a time crunch, Half Price Banners offers artwork cleanup services for a low price. Just visit the Art Specs page to send us your file, and we’ll respond with a quote for how much it will take to improve your graphic quality. Usually this fee ranges from $20 to 40, depending on how complex the graphic is.

I will start off with a little information on how banner colors work.
There are two theories when it comes to working with color: the additive and subtractive color theories.

In the additive color theory, you combine together Red, Green, and Blue Light to get pure White light. This is what you see when looking at your computer monitor, TV, or a movie screen. This is commonly referred to as RGB color mode in design software. Every color that the human eye can see can be reproduced by mixing Red, Green, and Blue light.

In the Subtractive color theory, you start with a white surface and use ink to remove light reflecting off of it.

Let’s say you start with a white sheet of paper and cover it with Cyan (C) ink. What you would actually be looking at is the white light reflecting off the paper minus all of the red light, which has been absorbed by the Cyan ink. If you take the same white sheet and cover it with Cyan, Magenta (M), and Yellow (Y), in theory you would have a black sheet of paper. In reality it would be a dark gray, which is why printers add Black (K) ink to the mix.

This is why this color mode is often called CMYK in your designing software.
Ninety to ninety-five percent of all the colors you can see can be reproduced using Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black inks.

Spot and Pantone colors are a whole other ball of wax. Let’s say you want Pantone color 287, which is a standard blue. If your printer uses the Pantone matching system, they would go to a shelf, pick up a can of Pantone 287, and print you art with it. If your printer does not use the Pantone system, then they would use their design software to break down Pantone color 287 into its CMYK parts: C=100, M=83, Y=16, K=6. Keep in mind about 90% of all Pantone colors can be accurately reproduced in CMYK format.

Now on the colors that would look good on a banner: Let’s start with high-visibility black text on a white background. You can’t beat a classic.
Some other good color combos are black/yellow and red/white. Red and yellow can also look very good. Basically, you want a high contrast between your text and background colors. Contrast is the difference between your lightest and darkest color.

Some color combos to avoid on your banner:

Red text on a black background – even a bright “fire engine” red can be hard to read on a black background, or vice versa.

Bright blue and bright red – lots of blue text on a red background, or vice versa, can give people eye strain and headaches.

Join us next time for How to store your banner.

The more text and images you want on the banner, the smaller each photo or line will have to be in order to make everything fit. The smaller the text is, the closer people will need to be to read it. For example, a line of text that is 3 inches tall will be legible within 100 feet of the banner or so, while a line that is 12 inches tall can be read from as far away as 500 feet.

As people get closer to your banner, quality becomes more important. Banners used at trade shows and conventions can be one example of this. If you hang a 4′x6′ banner along the back of your booth, people will be viewing it from about 6 feet away. If you hang a 2′x6′ banner from a table in front of your booth, people will be within inches of the banner, but by then their attention will be focused on you or the item you have on display in your booth.

Proportions are another size-related issue to keep in when picking your banner size. Anything you design to fill an 8.5″ by 11″ sheet of paper will look stretched out when printed on (for example) a 2′x6′ banner. If you are designing on an 8.5″x11″ sheet of paper in landscape orientation, your banner company can probably manipulate the file to print on these sizes: 2′x3′, 3′x4′, and 4′x5′. Common sense is the key here. If you are ordering a banner that is twice as wide as it is tall, such as a 2′x4′ or 3′x6′, make sure your design is in roughly the same proportions for best results.

Keep in mind that when you design a banner at a small size like 8.5″ x 11″, it is likely that the quality will be low when enlarged and printed directly on a banner. Your banner company will probably have to re-create the layout. We will address resolution (and how to prevent this kind of problem) in another article next month.

Next week’s topic: How to design an effective banner.

Adobe Illustrator works well because it is a vector-based program. Vector-based art can be scaled to any size without loss of clarity or detail. Photoshop works well because it is a photo manipulation program, meaning it was made to make images at pretty much any size, so you can set your banner up at the correct size. CorelDraw can do a little of both — mostly vector-based text and shapes along with some photo manipulation.

Programs to avoid: Paint Shop Pro and Microsoft Office programs like Word, Works, PowerPoint, Excel, and Publisher. Paint Shop Pro does have lots of clipart and can do page and banner layouts, but when you select a “banner” file type, all this does is tell your desktop to print the same image across several sheets of paper.
Microsoft Office programs are good for text-only banners because your banner printer can copy and paste the text into a better file format. Office programs are designed to work with letter paper and simply can’t make a file big enough to work for large-scale printing.

Tune in again next Friday, when we will be discussing how to choose the best fonts for your banner.