- What it is
- A graphic printed on a translucent material and held in a lit box or frame, so it is read by transmitted light instead of reflected light. It is the shopfront lightbox, the lift-lobby panel, the menu board above a counter and the tall illuminated column at an exhibition. Because the light comes through it rather than off it, density behaves differently — artwork that looks correct on a desk looks thin and washed out the moment it is lit.
- What it is printed on
A translucent backlit film — a polyester or PVC face made to diffuse light evenly — or a backlit fabric for a tensioned frame. The choice follows the box: a shallow box with lamps close behind the face needs a heavier diffusing material or the individual lamps read through as hot spots, while a deep box or an edge-lit panel is far more forgiving. Neither is a sheet the materials library holds, so no reading is quoted for either.
- How it feels
- Milky and surprisingly limp — a backlit film has none of the snap of a photographic print, and held up to a window it is plainly see-through. Backlit fabric is soft and dry like any woven panel, and once a tensioned one is seated in its frame there is no edge left to find at all.
- What it suits
- Retail frontage, food and beverage menu boards, lift lobbies, mall and airport advertising frames, and exhibition light columns. It does not suit a position with strong daylight across the face, where the box has to fight the sun and the image goes flat, and it does not suit artwork carrying large areas of near-white, which lit from behind become glare rather than paper.
- Lead time
- Standard turnaround is 7–14 working days. A physical proof, where one is asked for, is counted on top.
- The common mistake
- Supplying the file built for print and expecting it to look the same lit. A backlit graphic needs its density lifted and its shadows opened before it is output, because transmitted light thins everything, and the correction is not the same for a shallow box as for a deep one. Say what the box is while the file is being prepared — and measure the aperture rather than the frame, because the graphic is made oversize so its edges can be gripped, and the band that disappears into the hardware, at the foot most of all, is printed and never seen.
Print idea
Backlit lightbox graphics
A translucent print made to be read by light coming through it. The specification is decided by the box rather than by the image: how deep it is, how it is lit, and how much of the graphic the frame swallows.
Standard turnaround is 7–14 working days.
What backlit lightbox graphics is
A graphic printed on a translucent material and held in a lit box or frame, so it is read by transmitted light instead of reflected light. It is the shopfront lightbox, the lift-lobby panel, the menu board above a counter and the tall illuminated column at an exhibition. Because the light comes through it rather than off it, density behaves differently — artwork that looks correct on a desk looks thin and washed out the moment it is lit.
A translucent backlit film — a polyester or PVC face made to diffuse light evenly — or a backlit fabric for a tensioned frame. The choice follows the box: a shallow box with lamps close behind the face needs a heavier diffusing material or the individual lamps read through as hot spots, while a deep box or an edge-lit panel is far more forgiving. Neither is a sheet the materials library holds, so no reading is quoted for either.
- The finished drop.
- The visible area.
- The silicone bead, sewn to the perimeter and seated in the frame channel.
The specification
Six fields, and the last one is the useful one.
The same six questions are answered for every entry in this section, in the same order, so two objects can be compared without reading two pages of prose. The mistake is stated last and stated plainly, because it is the one that costs a reprint and it is the reason this page is worth sending to a colleague.
Where this sits.
Every entry is indexed three ways, because a buyer arrives knowing the occasion, the object or the material and almost never all three.
- Format
- Material and effect
Also worth looking at
- Tensioned fabric backdropStandard turnaround is 7–14 working days.
- Aluminium composite panelsStandard turnaround is 7–14 working days.
- One-way vision window filmStandard turnaround is 7–14 working days.
- PostersThe specification, and how it is quoted
- SignageThe specification, and how it is quoted
- Every print idea, indexed three waysThe section index
- The materials libraryCaliper, weight and what each finish costs
Send the specification for this, and it comes back quoted.
Every job is quoted from its specification — stock, quantity, sides, finish, size and deadline.
- Quantity
- Stock — or the feel you want, if you do not know the stock
- Sides printed
- Finish
- Flat and finished size
- The deadline
Artwork is welcome but not required to start. Email sales@ezprint.com.sg if you would rather attach files.