Good Filetypes for Banner Graphics
Posted by Half Price Banners on Oct 25th 2014
Graphics that will work on a banner:
Anything vector-based will work fine on a banner. Vector files can be scaled to ANY size with no loss of quality because vector images do not rely on pixels. EPS, Adobe Illustrator, and PDF files are good examples of typical vector-based artwork. This does not mean that all EPS, AI, or PDF files are vector-based… it is possible to embed low-resolution artwork within these files. For this reason, Half Price Banners provides a free Art Review service to let you know whether or not your artwork is suitable for your banner printing needs.
For any other file format, the higher the resolution of your image, the better. If you are using Half Price Banners, you can also visit two websites where you can find graphics that would work well on a banner: http://www.photos.com/ and http://www.clipart.com/. If you go with Clipart.com, make sure you select a graphic that has an EPS version. You don’t have to download these graphics yourself — Half Price Banners has memberships to both websites, so when you find graphics you want to put on your banner, just write down the image number.
Graphics that won’t work on a banner:
Almost any pictures you save from a website will not work, because they are already rasterized at a very small size. A raster image is made up out of pixels and dots, and once these pixels have been set, it is almost impossible to increase the size of the image without resulting in a noticeable loss of quality. By the time your banner printer enlarges a web image to fit on a banner, the image will be very pixellated or blurry. Similarly, art scanned from business cards will also be too small to use on a banner. If you only have small, low-resolution graphics, it would be best to go back to your original designer and have him/her make you a version just for banners. Or if you’re in a time crunch, Half Price Banners offers artwork cleanup services for a low price. Just visit the Art Specs page to send us your file, and we’ll respond with a quote for how much it will take to improve your graphic quality. Usually this fee ranges from $20 to 40, depending on how complex the graphic is.
Design your vinyl banner here.