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Vinyl banners are a form of banners made of vinyl. The most commonly used material is PVC (polyvinyl chloride). Most banners are now digitally printed on large format inkjet printers which are capable of printing a full color outdoor billboard on a single piece of material. They are used for outdoor advertising.
The most commonly used material is a heavy weight vinyl known as PVC (polyvinyl chloride). The weights of the different banner substrates range from as light as 9 ounces per square yard (310 g/m2) to as heavy as 22 oz/sq yd (750 g/m2), and may be double- or single-sided. Large banners (which can be so large that they cover the side of a building) are usually printed on a special mesh pvc material so that some wind can pass through them.
Grommets (eyelets) can also be added in order to facilitate hanging of the banner. A high frequency weld, stitching, or banner hem tape are also used to fasten the hems neatly, and provide the insertion of grommets/eyelets.
Most banners are now digitally printed on large format inkjet printers which are capable of printing a full color outdoor billboard on a single piece of material.
There are various types of vinyl banner. Their useful life typically ranges from 3–5 years.
A quality vinyl banner will also use an outside hem to ensure that grommets are secured properly. In windy conditions, if Grommets are not fastened into the hem of a vinyl banner, these grommet holes will easily tear out of the banner. Banner hem tapes are also used as decorative trim and to prevent delamination and lifting of vinyl hems.
Vinyl banners have many uses and applications. The banners are used for outdoor advertising. They are most often used to promote a company's logo, a special promotion, event, team, or school. Since vinyl is a very flexible as well as portable material, vinyl banners can be used in most places. Vinyl banners are commonly seen as billboards, table banners, trade show banners, building banners, street banners, festival banners, as well as stadium flags.
In the field of computing, a printer is considered a peripheral device that serves the purpose of creating a permanent representation of text or graphics, usually on paper. While the majority of outputs produced by printers are readable by humans, there are instances where barcode printers have found a utility beyond this traditional use. Different types of printers are available for use, including inkjet printers, thermal printers, laser printers, and 3D printers.
A plotter is a machine that produces vector graphics drawings. Plotters draw lines on paper using a pen, or in some applications, use a knife to cut a material like vinyl or leather. In the latter case, they are sometimes known as a cutting plotter.
Screen printing is a printing technique where a mesh is used to transfer ink onto a substrate, except in areas made impermeable to the ink by a blocking stencil. A blade or squeegee is moved across the screen to fill the open mesh apertures with ink, and a reverse stroke then causes the screen to touch the substrate momentarily along a line of contact. This causes the ink to wet the substrate and be pulled out of the mesh apertures as the screen springs back after the blade has passed. One colour is printed at a time, so several screens can be used to produce a multi-coloured image or design.
Inkjet printing is a type of computer printing that recreates a digital image by propelling droplets of ink onto paper and plastic substrates. Inkjet printers were the most commonly used type of printer in 2008, and range from small inexpensive consumer models to expensive professional machines. By 2019, laser printers outsold inkjet printers by nearly a 2:1 ratio, 9.6% vs 5.1% of all computer peripherals.
A banner can be a flag or another piece of cloth bearing a symbol, logo, slogan or another message. A flag whose design is the same as the shield in a coat of arms is called a banner of arms. Also, a bar-shaped piece of non-cloth advertising material sporting a name, slogan, or other marketing message is also a banner.
Dye-sublimation printing is a term that covers several distinct digital computer printing techniques that involve using heat to transfer dye onto a substrate.
Dots per inch is a measure of spatial printing, video or image scanner dot density, in particular the number of individual dots that can be placed in a line within the span of 1 inch (2.54 cm). Similarly, dots per centimetre refers to the number of individual dots that can be placed within a line of 1 centimetre (0.394 in).
A decal or transfer is a plastic, cloth, paper, or ceramic substrate that has printed on it a pattern or image that can be moved to another surface upon contact, usually with the aid of heat or water.
Giclée describes digital prints intended as fine art and produced by inkjet printers. The term is a neologism, ultimately derived from the French word gicleur, coined in 1991 by printmaker Jack Duganne. The name was originally applied to fine art prints created on a modified Iris printer in a process invented in the late 1980s. It has since been used widely to mean any fine-art printing, usually archival, printed by inkjet. It is often used by artists, galleries, and print shops for their high quality printing, but is also used generically for art printing of any quality.
Digital printing is a method of printing from a digital-based image directly to a variety of media. It usually refers to professional printing where small-run jobs from desktop publishing and other digital sources are printed using large-format and/or high-volume laser or inkjet printers.
A label is a piece of paper, plastic film, cloth, metal, or other material affixed to a container or product, on which is written or printed information or symbols about the product or item. Information printed directly on a container or article can also be considered labelling.
Iron-on transfers are images that can be imprinted on fabric. They are frequently used to print onto T-shirts.
Wide format printers are generally accepted to be any computer-controlled printing machines (printers) that support a maximum print roll width of between 18 and 100 inches. Printers with capacities over 100 in wide are considered super-wide or grand format. Wide-format printers are used to print banners, posters, trade show graphics, wallpaper, murals, backlit film (duratrans), vehicle image wraps, electronic circuit schematics, architectural drawings, construction plans, backdrops for theatrical and media sets, and any other large format artwork or signage. Wide-format printers usually employ some variant of inkjet or toner-based technology to produce the printed image; and are more economical than other print methods such as screen printing for most short-run print projects, depending on print size, run length, and the type of substrate or print medium. Wide-format printers are usually designed for printing onto a roll of print media that feeds incrementally during the print process, rather than onto individual sheets.
A continuous ink system (CIS), also known as a continuous ink supply system (CISS), a continuous flow system (CFS), an automatic ink refill system (AIRS), a bulk feed ink system (BFIS), or an off-axis ink delivery system (OIDS) is a method for delivering a large volume of liquid ink to a comparatively small inkjet printhead. Many business and professional grade printers incorporate a continuous ink system in their design to increase printing capacity.
Inkjet paper is a special fine paper designed for inkjet printers, typically classified by its weight, brightness and smoothness, and sometimes by its opacity.
Solid ink is a type of ink used in printing. Solid ink is a waxy, resin-based polymer that must be melted prior to usage, unlike conventional liquid inks. The technology is used most often in graphics and large-format printing environments where color vividness and cost efficiency are important.
Flatbed digital printers, also known as flatbed printers or flatbed UV printers, are printers characterized by a flat surface upon which a material is placed to be printed on. Flatbed printers are capable of printing on a wide variety of materials such as photographic paper, film, cloth, plastic, pvc, acrylic, glass, ceramic, metal, wood, leather, etc.). Flatbed digital printers usually use UV curable inks made of acrylic monomers that are then exposed to strong UV-light to cure, or polymerize them. This process allows for printing on a wide variety of surfaces such as wood or canvas, carpet, tile, and even glass. The adjustable printing bed makes it possible to print on surfaces ranging in thickness from a sheet of paper often up to as much as several inches. Typically used for commercial applications, flatbed printing is often a substitute for screen-printing. Since no printing plates or silkscreens must be produced, digital printing technology allows shorter runs of signs to be produced economically. Many of the high-end flatbed printers allow for roll-feed, allowing for unattended printing.
Transfer paper is used in textiles and arts and crafts projects. Transfer paper is a thin piece of paper coated with wax and pigment. Often, an ink-jet or other printer is used to print the image on the transfer paper. A heat press can transfer the image onto clothing, canvas, or other surface. Transfer paper is used in creating iron-ons.
A plastisol is a colloidal dispension of small polymer particles, usually polyvinyl chloride (PVC), in a liquid plasticizer. When heated to around 180 °C (356 °F), the plastic particles absorb the plasticizer, causing them to swell and fuse together forming a viscous gel. Once this is cooled to below 60 °C (140 °F) it becomes a flexible, permanently plasticized solid product. This process is called 'curing'.
Digital textile printing is described as any ink jet based method of printing colorants onto fabric. Most notably, digital textile printing is referred to when identifying either printing smaller designs onto garments and printing larger designs onto large format rolls of textile. The latter is a growing trend in visual communication, where advertisement and corporate branding is printed onto polyester media. Examples are: flags, banners, signs, retail graphics.