Printed Banners

Three questions before you order printed banners

Where is it going?

This one decides the material. A sheltered shop wall, an indoor hall or a stage backdrop can take a solid banner. A long stretch of open fence by a road, a scaffold on a windy corner or a Heras panel round a building site wants mesh, which lets the wind through instead of acting like a sail.

How far away will people be?

This decides the size. A café front read from the pavement often suits 6 ft × 3 ft (1829 × 914 mm) or 8 ft × 3 ft (2438 × 914 mm). A fence facing a road might need 10 ft × 3 ft (3048 × 914 mm) or 13 ft 1 in × 3 ft 3 in (4000 × 1000 mm). A handy rule from the sign trade: about 25 mm of capital letter height for every 3 metres of reading distance.

How long is it staying up?

A weekend fete and a six-month building project are different jobs. For a long outdoor stint, pick hemmed edges and metal eyelets on PVC, or go mesh.

The printed banners range, by what you already know

• You know the material: PVC Banners or Mesh Banners.
• You know the size: Banners by Size, in feet and metres.
• You're on a site: Heras Fence and Barrier Banners.
• You're a school, nursery or college: School and Education Banners, for open days, admissions and sports days.
• You're celebrating: Occasion and Celebration Banners and Wedding Banners.
• You're selling: Retail and Sale Banners, plus Event and Sports Banners for fixtures and fun runs.

What printed banners are made of

• 440gsm PVC: nothing shows through, so a logo on a church railing or a sale notice over a shop door looks punchy from across the street.
• 400gsm PVC-free: the pick for an exhibition hall, a shop interior or a venue with a no-PVC rule.
• 260gsm mesh: full of tiny holes, so a gust passes straight through a fence banner rather than tearing it off the ties.

For PVC and PVC-free, you decide on hems (or none), plastic or metal eyelets, and whether to add one or two bags of cable ties. Mesh gets metal or plastic eyelets. Still torn? Read the PVC or mesh banner guide.

Sizes of printed banners

Stock sizes run from 4 ft × 2 ft (1219 × 610 mm) to 9 ft 10 in × 6 ft 7 in (3000 × 2000 mm), and scaffold and large mesh banners go up to 16 ft 5 in × 9 ft 10 in (5000 × 3000 mm). The size table near the top of the page shows live prices for popular sizes. Measure the space first and leave room for fixings; a banner a little smaller than the gap looks neater than one folded round a post. Anything not listed can be a Custom Size Banner, and the what size banner do I need guide helps you pick.

Artwork for printed banners

• Work at full size, or at a true scale like 1:10 if your software struggles.
• Nobody reads a banner from 20 cm away, so 100 to 150 dpi at full size is enough for photos.
• Leave a 50 mm clear border. That's where hems fold and eyelets punch through.
• A PDF with outlined or embedded fonts is the safest bet, though AI, EPS, SVG, JPG, PNG and TIFF are fine too. CMYK helps colours land as expected.

Upload a print-ready file, use the free online designer, or book our paid artwork service; an automatic check reads every uploaded file for size and resolution. See the artwork guidelines.

Production and delivery

PVC and PVC-free printed banners take 4 working days on standard, express from 2 and saver 6. Mesh takes 6 standard, express from 4 and saver 8. Each product page shows its own production days, counted in working days (Monday to Friday, not bank holidays) from when your order and artwork are confirmed. All printed banners are made to order and dispatched from the UK. UK mainland delivery is £7.95, free on orders of £100 or more after discounts (artwork fees excluded). Mainland Highlands add £10. Northern Ireland, the Scottish islands, the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands, the Isles of Scilly and the Isle of Wight are quoted. Items over 3 m on any side add £15. The delivery page has the rest.