Banner Printing

Banner Printing

Banners continue to be among the most preferred means of display advertising. They offer a matchless degree of attention-grabbing properties and the range of their application in commerce and public awareness is literally limitless. Of course, there are various kinds of banners – some merely functional, others highly specialized and professionally envisioned.

While there are various kinds of media on which banners can be printed, and innumerable ways of displaying the end product, the baseline fact remains that they have to be printed. Unless we are talking of the first hand-painted versions, banners often need to be mass-produced for maximum display efficacy and advantage. Each unit must be of consistent quality and wield the same visual impact. The onus in achieving this lies on the printing.

Effective printing begins with the choice of the most suitable ink. The kind chosen for any banner depends largely on the medium on which they will be used. Banner media are now being developed to correspond to various inks, which means that fabric will be coated to best accommodate them. The inks used in banner manufacture were initially aqueous and dye-based. Later, as better fabrics and media such as PVC were introduced in banner production, pigmented inks were introduced. Currently, the majority of banners being manufactured by inkjet-printing processes, and the best inks are the eco solvent kinds.

Banner printing has evolved considerably and the latest technologies now allow for smaller drop sizes, which enhances the DPI (or dots per inch) quotient. Early generation inkjet printers could not produce the results being achieved by the current breed, which achieve maximum fabric saturation and produce truly brilliant and true-to-life visual results. Banners were previously produced via dye sublimation and screen printing, which made for lower volume output and poorer printing quality.

While vinyl or PVC is now the most preferred medium, owing to its high durability, portability and the visual effect it delivers, there are many printable fabrics in use today. Among them are silk, wool, nylon, polyester and cotton. Each medium has its own properties and selection would depend on the customer’s specific requirements.

For instance, cotton- with a softer look that can be enhanced with inventive lighting for even greater impact – is best suited for indoor banners. This is because it does not have a long life when used outdoors, since moisture of any kind will eventually take its toll. Polyester banner fabric is more suited for outdoor advertising; it is also the best suited material for inkjet printing. Canvas is also best suited for indoor use, but it gives a far better effect than cotton.

Banners are printed via digital printing, and there are many techniques for this process. Fundamentally, a computer-generated design is transferred to a certain material. In water-based dispersal printing, ink is transferred to the fabric. Newer techniques cause the ink to be applied under pressure. This causes it to suffuse the fabric and invariably produces a mirror image on both sides. This, of course, is not ‘printing’ in the classical sense and has certain disadvantages such as blurring. This can be avoided by using material of thicker gauge to prevent the ink from bleeding through the fabric. Screen printing, on the other hand, produces far more durable banners, and larger volumes are also possible with this technique. Screen printing is a more cumbersome process but the final product is longer lasting and results in a better visual appeal. The process involves the making of a template – or negative – through which ink is pressed onto the chosen material. Previously, colors had to be transferred one at a time but newer processes now allow for complex color transfers in a single go.

Banner Printing