What is a Vinyl Sticker and what is a Vinyl decal?

[tim99]

for us its more to what material

customer comes in and wants a butterfly sticker on there back window - calendared material
customer comes in and wants company logo decals on doors of vehicle - cast material

so many different terms for what vinyl really is. "decal" has a higher quality sound to it compared to "sticker"

 

[toonsign]

Decals or stickers?

Many thanks to the most varied answers.

Think I'll call mine decals.

Fred
Melbourne FL

 

[Gino]

If ya really wanna sound like you know what you're doing...... call it :

Adhesive Backed Pressure Sensitive Digitally Printed Contour Cut Graphics. That way it covers stickers, decals, translucents and all that other neat sh!t you can do with the 'Push" of a button. No talent in, no talent out, just a highfalutin complexity.

 

[James Burke]

I'm so confused. What the heck is that little forty-nine cent rectangle I adhere to the top right corner of my envelopes?


JB

 

[Andy D]

STICKERS

DECALS

 

[T_K]

If ya really wanna sound like you know what you're doing...... call it :

Adhesive Backed Pressure Sensitive Digitally Printed Contour Cut Graphics. That way it covers stickers, decals, translucents and all that other neat sh!t you can do with the 'Push" of a button. No talent in, no talent out, just a highfalutin complexity.

Now don't go scaring off the customers with that crazy technical language! You know their eyes just crossed!

 

[Gino]

Now don't go scaring off the customers with that crazy technical language! You know their eyes just crossed!

The customers.....???? I probably just scared off 90% of the members here. :ROFLMAO:

 

[Pippin Decals]

For me i think of "stickers as printed decals of vinyl and decals as single or mulitple layers of vinyl"...And thats what people come to me and say ,Do you do stickers or decals..So i give them as stated earlier and they understand it that way.. works for me and them lol

 

[Pauly]

Decal is short for Decalcomania.

 

[Baz]

You can charge your customers more for decals than for stickers.

 

[ams]

A sticker is a cheap piece of crap that doesn't last long and is made by paper printing companies.
A decal is a long lasting vinyl made by a professional sign shop.

 

[S'N'S]

Decals must be an American thang, as here in Australia I have never, ever had anyone ask for a Decal.

Dictionary:
sticker

ˈstɪkə/
noun
noun: sticker; plural noun: stickers

• 1.
  an adhesive label or notice, generally printed or illustrated.
  "a disabled sticker for our car"
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

decal

ˈdiːkal/
noun
noun: decal; plural noun: decals

• a design prepared on special paper for durable transfer on to another surface such as glass or porcelain.
  
  
  
  
  

 

[bob]

Decals must be an American thang, as here in Australia I have never, ever had anyone ask for a Decal.

Dictionary:
sticker

ˈstɪkə/
noun
noun: sticker; plural noun: stickers

• 1.
  an adhesive label or notice, generally printed or illustrated.
  "a disabled sticker for our car"
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

decal

ˈdiːkal/
noun
noun: decal; plural noun: decals

• a design prepared on special paper for durable transfer on to another surface such as glass or porcelain.
  
  
  
  
  

dictionary
[dik-shuh-ner-ee]
noun

A compendium of word usage, not definitions. A dictionary is descriptive not definitive. It is merely a list of words and their usage of which the editors were aware at the time of publishing.

The only word a dictionary is capable of defining is 'dictionary'. Any reference to a dictionary in any argument dealing with just what something is or is not is committing bob's favorite fallacy; "Argument as lexicon" which, if it isn't a formal fallacy, damn well ought to be one.


decal
/dɪˈkæl; ˈdiːkæl/

Abbreviation for 'decalcomania' and commonly used for graphic images, both text and pictures, that are stuck onto something else.


sticker
[stik-er]

A word used by mouth breathing microcephalics when they're trying to say 'decal'. Often the very same specimens that use the word 'graphic' as a noun.

 

[Gino]

I remember, a long time ago, when someone said.......... sticker, I think she's done, right before we were ready to sit down to Thanksgiving dinner. ​

 

[boxerbay]

call it whatever you like as long as you pay in full.

 

[rjssigns]

As long as the client is cutting me a fat check they can call them whatever they want.

 

[decalman]

A decal or a dehcal as they say in Canada, is a classy name for a sticker.
We would feel too stoopid, if we told people we just make stickers.

If I drove a truck, I would tell people ,I'm in " logistics" or a "transportation technician" or something.

I'm a graphic designer sounds good.
Truth is, I'm just a putts, that owns a sticker machine. ( the latter sounds bad)

 

[Brandon708]

Personally, I always referred to a cut vinyl such as letters as decals. Printed vinyl I call stickers it they are small and a circle or rectangle. If they are contour cut in a special shape like a customer logo and are say for a car door I call that too a decal.

So basically my thought is if it needs transfer tape to apply it's a decal and if not then it's a sticker.

 

[Gino]

So OP, what say ye, after all these wonderful answers ??

This thread is like all the printer questions as to which one is the best........ No one knows anything, other then personal emotions and no understanding.
Call it whatever ya like, just don't p!ss off the customer by correcting them and make sure you get paid, before they think they're buying cut out shelf liner paper.

 

[Bmhdg1976]

Decals must be an American thang, as here in Australia I have never, ever had anyone ask for a Decal.

Hope not just American... I am in Queensland and Decals is in our trading name!!!

BJ