Banner Printing

Banners 101

By BannerMan  |  2010/02/01 09:42 Posted in Banner Printing  |  Comments (0)

This is Banners 101. If you were supposed to be in Pet Picassos Marketing 236 that class has been moved to the blog across the hall….

In this class we’re going to learn about the basics of designing a banner at HalfPriceBanners.com.  Any confusion that may arise or questions you may have will be answered if you write an email (lisam@halfpricebanners.com) or give us a call (1-866-527-1363) with your concerns.

One of the first decisions you have to make when designing a banner is the size that you should be ordering. Much of this can be decided based on what you are using the banner for, and your designer can help you make this decision if you aren’t sure.  The options at Half Price Banners are listed as (height in feet X width in feet).  For example, the 2×6 option is 2 feet tall by 6 feet wide.  Any of the listed sizes can be turned so that they go vertically instead of horizontally. 

The artwork that you send in is usually proportionate to a fixed ratio of sizes. If you are able to measure the length and width of the artwork you should be able to guess approximately what size you need.  If you don’t know how to do this, you may choose a size that is close to the correct size and the designer will further discuss other options when he receives the order. We can always change the banner size after you place an order – it’s no problem.

When you place a banner order, you have three options for full color banners.  You can submit a print ready file, meaning it is complete and no manipulation needs to be done to the file for it to be ready before printing on a banner.  You can have us design your banner for you, which will allow you to upload pieces of the banner like logos or graphics, and tell us what you’d like it to say.  Finally, you can design the banner yourself using our one-of-a-kind Banner Builder tool.  The banner builder doesn’t currently allow you to upload your own artwork, however if you let the designer know that you want to do so, he or she will respond with ways to do so after the order is placed.  We encourage you to pick whichever option works best for you… there’s no one preferred way to have your banner printed.

From the time you order a banner, to the time the banner arrives, will usually take 3-5 days with Half Price Banners’ basic ground shipping (ao long as there are no complications with the artwork).  Upgraded shipping can speed up the process, but please realize that even with Next Day shipping we also have to have time to send you a proof and time to print the banner, let it dry, and finish it with hems and grommets.  If you need rush service, you’ll need to order Next Day shipping and make sure to approve your proof almost as soon as it arrives in your email, but in some cases this will allow us to have the banner to you the day after you placed your order.

Thanks for coming to class today… we’ll have a quiz next week over this material! I’m looking forward to sending you a high quality banner at half price.

What are banners made of?

By BannerGuru  |  2010/01/08 11:47 Posted in Banner Printing  |  Comments (0)

The first thing you want to consider before ordering a banner is what kind of material will be used. Many discount banner companies use thin fabric, paper, plastic or vinyl, which may work in the short term. But if you want your banner to last for several years, it is important to make sure it is made out of strong material.

At HalfPriceBanners.com, we print only on interior/exterior 13 oz. gloss vinyl reinforced with nylon mesh. This material is very durable, completely opaque, and will last indefinitely if hung indoors, 3-5 years if hung outside, with wind being the biggest factor. We print with a UV-resistant eco-solvent ink that will keep your banners looking new long after you hang them up.

Some companies will charge you to hem and add grommets to your banner. At HalfPriceBanners.com, hemming and grommeting are standard and available at no additional cost. We will heat-weld the hem of your banner on all four sides and add nickel-plated grommets in each corner (spaced out every 3-4 feet along the top and bottom edges.) With Full Color Banners, we can also add more grommets and custom-space them for a small fee. We can also produce your banners with no hemming or grommeting, if requested.

So when shopping around for the best deal, remember that HalfPricebanners.com delivers a higher-quality banner product at about the same price as many discount banner companies.

How to store your banner

By BannerMan  |  2009/12/22 15:20 Posted in Banner Printing  |  Comments (0)

You’ve ordered and used your banner and the promotion that you were advertising is over until next year.  Now you have to store it.  Here are some tips to do that without risking the integrity of the banner.

Always roll the banner up when storing it.  If the banner is folded over itself there is a chance that the banner will crease or that the ink may transfer from one side to the other. 

Try to keep the banner in a spot that will stay room temperature.  Heat or humidity can cause the banner to deteriorate faster and if the conditions are right may cause ink transfer.

Keep the rolled banner in the box that your order shipped with. It will protect against smashing in storage which can lead to creases.

Overall, storing your banner isn’t a difficult thing to do. You just need to remember to keep the banner rolled, protected and dry.

Print-ready files

By BannerMan  |  2009/10/16 15:11 Posted in Banner Printing  |  Comments (0)

When you create a print-ready file designed for banner printing, the image needs to be 100 DPI or higher. The file also needs to be set to the size in inches of the banner you plan to order.

DPI is the number of pixels, or dots per inch, in the file. The higher the number, the better the resolution of your art will be. The better the resolution, the clearer the picture will be. This is the reason that photos found on the internet rarely work for printing banners. The standard DPI for web images is 72 DPI, and most of these images are not bigger than a 3 inch by 3 inch space. So when you blow that up the size of a banner, such as 36 inches by 36 inches, you are effectively reducing the number of pixels per inch to 6 DPI.

Even if you take the art you found online and raise the DPI to 100 using a program like Adobe Photoshop, it does not make the image look any clearer. You have to start from a high quality file to get high quality output.

Think of it this way. If you have a globe and you use a magnifying glass to look closer at it, you won’t be able to see any buildings or any better detail than what is already being seen on the globe except to make it larger. You have to have a high resolution image to begin with, there is not a way to “Res Up” low-resolution artwork.

If you absolutely have to have the art that you found online, you can redraw it using a vector program such as Adobe Illustrator. Banner printer companies can do this for you, but generally they charge an Additional Design Fee.

Next week we will be covering banner design software.