- What it is
- A large printed banner woven or perforated so a proportion of its area is open. Air passes through instead of loading the face, which cuts the force on the material, the eyelets and whatever they are tied to. It is hemmed and eyeletted like a solid banner and fixed in the same way; the difference is entirely in the material.
- What it is printed on
A PVC-coated woven mesh, or a solid banner material perforated after printing. Both trade image density for air: the open area softens a flat colour, takes the edge off fine type, and lets whatever is behind the banner show through. A photograph on mesh reads well from across a road and badly from across a room. It is not a sheet the caliper table holds.
- How it feels
- Coarse and open, like a heavy sailcloth. Held up to the light it is visibly full of holes; at arm’s length the image closes up again. It is lighter than a solid banner of the same size and it does not crack along a fold, so it travels and stores better than one.
- What it suits
- Building facades, scaffold and hoarding elevations, stadium and roadside fixings, and any exposed site where a solid banner would behave as a sail. It does not suit an interior backdrop, where the wall behind shows through and the image goes grey, and it does not suit a graphic that depends on fine detail or small type.
- Lead time
- Standard turnaround is 7–14 working days. Installation, where it applies, is scheduled on top of that.
- The common mistake
- Fixing it as though the wind problem has been solved. Mesh reduces the load; it does not remove it. A banner tied only at its corners still bags in the middle and works its eyelets loose, so it needs ties at close regular centres all round, a hem strong enough to spread the load into the fixings, and — on any facade — the building owner’s written agreement about what may be tied to what. The part that fails is almost never the print.
Print idea
Mesh banners
A banner with holes in it, so the wind passes through rather than pushing against it. On an exposed elevation the mesh is not a compromise on the image — it is what keeps the banner and its fixings attached to the building.
Standard turnaround is 7–14 working days.
What mesh banners is
A large printed banner woven or perforated so a proportion of its area is open. Air passes through instead of loading the face, which cuts the force on the material, the eyelets and whatever they are tied to. It is hemmed and eyeletted like a solid banner and fixed in the same way; the difference is entirely in the material.
A PVC-coated woven mesh, or a solid banner material perforated after printing. Both trade image density for air: the open area softens a flat colour, takes the edge off fine type, and lets whatever is behind the banner show through. A photograph on mesh reads well from across a road and badly from across a room. It is not a sheet the caliper table holds.
- The finished drop.
- The visible area.
- The hem, folded and welded, with the eyelets set into it. Everything inside the fold is printed and never seen.
- The seam, where the drops join. A wide web, so a long banner carries fewer seams than the same length in coated material.
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
- Ceiling-rigged bannersStandard turnaround is 7–14 working days.
- Construction hoarding graphicsStandard turnaround is 7–14 working days.
- Fluted polypropylene panelsStandard turnaround is 7–14 working days.
- BannersThe 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.