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

When you want to add a photo or graphic image to a large banner design, you should keep a few things in mind. In order to look crisp and clear an image must be saved in the correct resolution. For most large display projects such as vinyl banners, display backdrops, window graphic, and popup displays, a resolution of about 100 ppi (pixels per inch) at finished 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 this image can be blown up to roughly 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 created for viewing from a distance of at least 10 feet away.

Second, it is often necessary to brighten up the colors of your images. You can usually do this by increasing the contrast. In Photoshop the most effective way to do this is by "pinching" the levels. Open the levels control window and push the shadows (dark shades) control towards the middle (to the right). Then push the highlights control to the left. This will brighten your light colors and darken your dark colors while clearing up 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.

Last but not least, we recommend working in CMYK mode rather than RGB. Vinyl graphics and other large format graphics are almost always printed on CMYK printers with solvent inks. If you input RGB images you are relying on your printer to make the conversion to CMYK. This is often not as reliable as doing the conversion yourself before sending the images down to the printer. RGB can often be somewhat misleading since it has a broader color "gamut" than CMYK.

There are colors you can see on a computer monitor that cannot be printed with CMYK inks especially not with solvent inks on a medium like vinyl. You are best to be aware of 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 printed 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 realized is that the choice of ink will have an impact on the quality of the job. It is usually advised to use true solvent inks for outdoor projects because they are best for full color printing that will be used in direct sunlight or other potentially harmful weather conditions such as rain or snow.

Unlike water-based inks, solvent inks resist fading due to UV exposure, and stand up to wind and rain much better. Non solvent inks will fade much more quickly in bright sunlight. Even for projects intended for indoor use 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 display printing experts at TradeShow-Display-Experts.com