- What it is
- A design cut through the face and adhesive of a vinyl film but not through its liner, then weeded — the waste picked away by hand — and lifted onto the surface with a sheet of application tape. It can be cut from solid-colour film, so there is no print in it at all and no ink to fade, or printed first and then contour cut, which is how a decal with an image inside it is made. Either way there is no visible rectangle: the glass, wall or panel behind it is the background.
- What it is printed on
Self-adhesive vinyl, coloured through the face for cut lettering or printed and laminated for a contour-cut decal. A cast film is the one for a curve or a long dwell; a calendered film is flatter, shorter-lived and the sensible choice for a campaign. None of them is a sheet in the materials library, so no reading is quoted here.
- How it feels
- A graphic a fingertip can find. The film sits a fraction proud of the surface, so a letter has an edge you can feel and throws a hairline shadow in raking light. Solid-colour film is matt and dry to touch; a laminated contour-cut decal is smoother and slicker, and the difference is obvious with the eyes shut.
- What it suits
- Shop and office lettering, door numbers and glass logos, vehicle livery, equipment labelling, and every small decal that a large graphic needs beside it. It does not suit very fine detail, which cannot be weeded without lifting, and it does not suit a rough, dusty or freshly painted surface, where a cut edge has nothing continuous to key onto and starts peeling from a corner.
- Lead time
- Standard turnaround is 7–14 working days. Installation, where it applies, is scheduled on top of that.
- The common mistake
- Supplying the artwork as an image and expecting a cut. A cutter follows a vector path, so a logo sent as a flattened image has to be redrawn before anything can be made, and a redrawn logo is a logo that is now subtly wrong. Send outlines converted to paths, with the cut as a separate closed path on its own layer — and check the smallest counters in the type, because a letterform with a loop too fine to weed comes back closed up and nobody notices until it is on the glass.
Print idea
Cut and contour-cut vinyl graphics
Film cut to the shape of the artwork rather than to a rectangle: lettering, logos and decals with no background at all. The edge of the graphic is the edge of the shape.
Standard turnaround is 7–14 working days.
What cut and contour-cut vinyl graphics is
A design cut through the face and adhesive of a vinyl film but not through its liner, then weeded — the waste picked away by hand — and lifted onto the surface with a sheet of application tape. It can be cut from solid-colour film, so there is no print in it at all and no ink to fade, or printed first and then contour cut, which is how a decal with an image inside it is made. Either way there is no visible rectangle: the glass, wall or panel behind it is the background.
Self-adhesive vinyl, coloured through the face for cut lettering or printed and laminated for a contour-cut decal. A cast film is the one for a curve or a long dwell; a calendered film is flatter, shorter-lived and the sensible choice for a campaign. None of them is a sheet in the materials library, so no reading is quoted here.
- The face film.
- The adhesive.
- The release liner, peeled away at the moment of application.
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.
- Application
- Format
- Material and effect
Also worth looking at
- Frosted glass manifestationStandard turnaround is 7–14 working days.
- Vehicle wraps and part wrapsStandard turnaround is 7–14 working days.
- One-way vision window filmStandard turnaround is 7–14 working days.
- StickersThe specification, and how it is quoted
- Large formatThe 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.