Banner Clarification

[Davis25r]

Hello all,

I am looking to gain some clarification on some banner sizing confusion.

I am relatively new to the whole large format printing world, with less than 1 year experience. I am an engineer by day, and small print shop owner by night. Mostly doing small decals, and motorsports/race car related business. Business has successfully been taking off for me, and I have been looking at broadening my horizons.

Lately, I have had numerous opportunities to print banners. Now I could easily outsource these, and it may be smart to at the start. However, I would like to try making some myself for the experience.

My question here is sizing. Now I understand hemming the edges of the banner generally 1" by either sewing or using hem tape.

I see that alot of common banner roll sizes are either 38" or 54", which I assume are for 3' and 4' banner widths. Now 38" banners with 1" hems comes out to 36". Great. But 54" with 1" hems is 52"? Are 48" banners using 3" hems? Or if 54" rolls are not used for 4' banners what are they primarily used for? The engineer in me is eager to learn.

I have sat here on google for at least an hour or more looking for the golden answer here but have not seem to find this. Maybe one of you can help me out!

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[SignMeUpGraphics]

We use 2" welded hems on all banners. We print and cut to size, then weld the hems.
I've never put any thought into rolls being made for certain job types. We use 54" for virtually everything except 60" for large canvas prints.

 

[Gino]

Same here. 54" rolls of various banner stock is what we have. We have some 65" for on the flatbed. There are a few 36" and 38" rolls of specialty type, but they're for certain customers. I'd buy according to what my equipment can hold and trim where needed.

 

[jfiscus]

54"/63" is a common printer width, that's why they sell that size of banner.
The size of banner someone needs is the size you have in stock.

 

[myront]

We use 1" double-sided banner tape to hem. 36" finished size on a 38" roll is ideal. If a 60" is requested and it's a 1 off we'll just trim off as needed. If a large number we might talk the customer into a 61" finished size to save time in the trimming/hemming process. We often have oversized banners that are stretched inside a frame. We outsource them but their welded/stitched hem isn't accurate enough so we just ask them to print only and we'll do the hem in-house.

 

[rjssigns]

When using Illustrator or Indesign.
Add two inches to width and height of size requested.
Full bleed to those dimensions.
If no bleed is possible add 1pt stroke to those dimensions. This becomes your trim line.
Print.
Trim to bleed or stroke.
Hem.

For Flexi:
Design to finished size.
Use Banner Finishing tab to add bleed, margins, grommet locations etc...

13oz JetFlex matte has been our go to for more years than I can remeber.
Hem with OraBond 1" premium tape.
Hiker grommet press. Stimpson are horrible.

 

[Scotchbrite]

We used a banner material that gives us really great prints but comes in 39" wide rolls. We would stock 1.5" hem tape to use with that material to get 36" finish size. Anymore we've gone to the same system most everyone has mentioned and print on 54" rolls and trim to size.

 

[Geneva Olson]

Hello all,

I am looking to gain some clarification on some banner sizing confusion.

I am relatively new to the whole large format printing world, with less than 1 year experience. I am an engineer by day, and small print shop owner by night. Mostly doing small decals, and motorsports/race car related business. Business has successfully been taking off for me, and I have been looking at broadening my horizons.

Lately, I have had numerous opportunities to print banners. Now I could easily outsource these, and it may be smart to at the start. However, I would like to try making some myself for the experience.

My question here is sizing. Now I understand hemming the edges of the banner generally 1" by either sewing or using hem tape.

I see that alot of common banner roll sizes are either 38" or 54", which I assume are for 3' and 4' banner widths. Now 38" banners with 1" hems comes out to 36". Great. But 54" with 1" hems is 52"? Are 48" banners using 3" hems? Or if 54" rolls are not used for 4' banners what are they primarily used for? The engineer in me is eager to learn.

I have sat here on google for at least an hour or more looking for the golden answer here but have not seem to find this. Maybe one of you can help me out!

Any help would be appreciated.

Super simple. The pallet is the size of your banner. So if someone wants a 3ft x 6ft banner, that's the pallet. I put it inside of a template that allows for a 1inch fold over and grommets at locations predetermenined.

 

[MNT_Printhead]

I have used 1" hems on banners every where I have made them the last 18 years, except when I had a welder, then it was still a 1' hem. When it comes to mesh I do 2" hems.

 

[Davis25r]

When using Illustrator or Indesign.
Add two inches to width and height of size requested.
Full bleed to those dimensions.
If no bleed is possible add 1pt stroke to those dimensions. This becomes your trim line.
Print.
Trim to bleed or stroke.
Hem.

For Flexi:
Design to finished size.
Use Banner Finishing tab to add bleed, margins, grommet locations etc...

13oz JetFlex matte has been our go to for more years than I can remeber.
Hem with OraBond 1" premium tape.
Hiker grommet press. Stimpson are horrible.

 

[Davis25r]

Thanks for the replies everyone! My question has definitely been answered.
I was way over thinking this last night and didn't even consider printing to size and trimming, like I typically would with vinyl material.
I will be ordering a roll of 54" and giving it a shot

 

[Cory Rau]

When using Illustrator or Indesign.
Add two inches to width and height of size requested.
Full bleed to those dimensions.
If no bleed is possible add 1pt stroke to those dimensions. This becomes your trim line.
Print.
Trim to bleed or stroke.
Hem.

For Flexi:
Design to finished size.
Use Banner Finishing tab to add bleed, margins, grommet locations etc...

13oz JetFlex matte has been our go to for more years than I can remeber.
Hem with OraBond 1" premium tape.
Hiker grommet press. Stimpson are horrible.

I'm sorry you feel this way about our 405. We get very good feedback on their design and function from our customers. Would you be willing to share what you don't like? We're always eager to improve our products.

Regards,
Cory Rau
Executive VP
Stimpson