Adding full color photos and illustrations to large vinyl banners will create banner designs with greater impact and a more high quality appearance. Adding a full color photo to your vinyl banner is usually the easiest and best way to do this.
When you want to add a photo or graphic image to a large banner design, try to keep a number of things in mind. In order to look crisp and clear an image really should 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 original 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 about 24″ x 30″. That will give you a final resolution of 100 ppi. In fact you can go as low as 50 ppi and still get good quality output, because these displays are usually designed to be viewed from at least 10 feet away.
Second, it is often necessary to brighten up the colors of your graphics. A good way to do this is to increase the contrast. If you use Photoshop the easiest 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 has the effect of brightening your light colors and darkening your shadows while eliminating some of the “mudiness” of the mid tones.
”Sharpening” your images will also make them look brighter. 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, you should work in CMYK mode rather than RGB. Vinyl graphics and other large format graphics are just about always printed on CMYK printing devices 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 be misleading since it can display more colors than can be printed by CMYK.
There are colors you can see on a computer monitor that cannot be reproduced with CMYK inks especially not with solvent 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.
Another important point to be aware of is that the choice of ink will impact the quality of the job. Outdoor projects should be printed with true solvent inks because they are ideal for full color printing that will be used in harsh sunlight or other harsh 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 usuallyfade much more quickly in direct 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 situations that require graphics which will likely 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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