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Designing Vinyl Banners Online, Pt. 2

While I'm not usually a fan of text only vinyl banners (afterall, a picture is worth a thousand words) they do have their uses and are typically a little less expensive than other banners and signs, for the budget minded consumer.

Our Design Banner Online using Text Only software lets you create a simple yet colorful vinyl banner. Like its more robust brother, this program contains three basic areas - the Blue Basic Buttons, the Grey Editing Bar, and the Green Buttons.

That's about the only thing it has in common. To start, you just following the text on the banner "Click Here & Start Typing." The tricky thing is, the text will not allow itself to become stretched or skewed, auto-adjusting its size to keep it proportional to itself.

This can be a little frustrating if you've got a really long message or a really small banner, but it is actually pretty easy if you keep a few things in mind.

Start designing by adding your text to the banner, all on one line, and ignore all the buttons at the current time. Once all of the copy is typed, work on breaking it down into multiple lines of text - you'll see that it starts to enlarge as your work.

Once you have the text kinda looking how you'd like, start using the Grey Editing Buttons. To affect the words, you'll need to highlight them with the mouse and then change the font, size, style, etc. (A Note about Size: This is an arbitrary number - your on-screeen design is proportional to your printed banner. So, even if the Size is 72, if it looks small compared to the proof, it will look small when printed on your banner.)

For spacing, select the font you like first, and then use Size and the Line and Symbol Spacing tools to get your text laid out how you'd like it to look. And remember, you can highlight one line at a time to edit the size of just that line.

Once the spacing is complete, use the Blue Basic Buttons and choose a color combination that looks good together yet has a decent amount of contrast so that is will be nice and visible. If you select a color and it doesn't appear in your design, the color is not selected (usually, you just need to highlight the text and then reselect the color).

Once your vinyl banner is setup and looking great on-screen, the two green buttons on the upper right come into play. These work in tandem with one another, allowing you to save a design (which is great to then change a few things and save another version) or add the version on your screen to your cart. You'll be prompted to save your online design when you add it to your shopping cart - this just makes sure that you're ordering the most recent version of your vinyl banners and signs.

And if neither of our online design options is for you, you can always upload your complete, print-ready file, directly to us for use on your digitally printed vinyl banners.

Designing Vinyl Banners Online, Pt. 1

Last week, I briefly touched on our design online software. This week, I'd like to devote more time to ordering custom vinyl banners online, starting with my personal favorite - Design Banner Online using Text & Pictures.

This option of ours is, hands down, the best online design software for vinyl banners anywhere on the internet. I know this because we designed it to be that way.

When it loads on Esigns.com, theres a few different areas to pay attention to. The 4 blue buttons at the top are standard design elements. They allow you to add text and clipart using vector files, upload your own files using the Images/Logo Button, and apply a background (either a color or actual vector-designed background).

Every design should make use of these blue buttons. Before moving on to the Grey Editing Buttons on the side, I'd like to mention that this design provides a live proof while you work - if you've uploaded a jpg image of your logo and it has a white box around it (even though your background is a colorful image) it will print with the white box around it. If this isn't what you had in mind, you'll want to try a different file format, such as a .psd, .ai, .eps, etc. And if these aren't available, please click on the Live Help link at the top of the page and we'll do what we can for you.

The grey buttons are for editing your design, allowing you to do such things as add outlines to your text, rotate and mirror images, and copy images (hint: use Copy on your text as this will ensure that all your text is the same size).

The most complicated of buttons also resides here - the Layer Buttons. These are used to position your different design elements either in front of or behind each other and are definitely worth checking out. We've had some customers create photo collages on their banners with these two buttons.

Next comes the Alignment Buttons in the bottom corner. Wonder if something is centered? Just click on it and then click on the appropriate alignment button and voila. You can even select multiple items and align them all together (say, for example, your copied and perfectly sized text).

And lastly the MVP of the Grey Buttons - Undo...don't like how it looks or clicked the wrong button, just Undo it. Great for alignment mishaps, layering issues, or any other mistake you'd rather not have see the light of day on your custom banners and signs.

Once your vinyl banner is setup and looking great on-screen, the two green buttons on the upper right come into play. These work in tandem with one another, allowing you to save a design (which is great to then change a few things and save another version) or add the version on your screen to your cart. You'll be prompted to save your online design when you add it to your shopping cart - this just makes sure that you're ordering the most recent version of your vinyl banners and signs.

Tomorrow, we'll focus on the Text Only Design Software. Till then...

So Many Colors, So Little Canvas

My last two posts, somehow "published" on the 12th and 13th despite being the 20th and 21st, pitted color spectrums against one another in a Mad Max Beyond the Thunderdome style "two modes enter, 1 mode leaves."

RGB won over CMYK (for file setup) CMYK beat out Pantone (for printing). But for a typical Esigns.com customer, what does all that mean? First part of the answer, design and submit your files to us in Red, Green, Blue and let us handle the color conversion. And secondly, we don't use the PMS so if you do convert for us, make it ready for four-color process printing.

With a now passable understanding of color modes (on my part), we're set to begin looking at practical uses for colors with your vinyl banners. Sadly, there is no magic bullet like "chartreuse will attract customers looking to buy."

Tangent - If you're asking for a specific color, always provide the color coordinates. Whether it is Hex Triplet, RGB, CMYK...anything, but not just the name. Just look at the color Chartreuse to see why. All this time, I thought my box of Crayola 64 was right and people who described it as green were wrong...like most things, the truth is somewhere in the middle.

And back on topic - The main thing with colors is to make sure they can do their job for you. To do this, they need to attract attention so that people notice your banners and signs, and they need to be the right color. They need to fit with your company's brand and image so that there is never a question of whose sign is that? Your custom printed banners must also appeal to your customers (hopefully, the colors of your brand do too, otherwise...yeah).

Next make sure the colors you want aren't too bright. While we want them to attract attention, we don't want them to overwhelm anyone or look like some sort of optical illusion (making sure your colors don't clash goes a long way to helping with this last part).

So, you've got all the colors of the rainbow for your banner palette...lets see what you can come up with.

Ordering Vinyl Banners Online

I was looking over the posts I've done while trying to come up with something new and helpful, when I realized that I'd never mentioned Esigns.com's ordering process. I normally try and post about industry-wide topics such as effective design tips, how to hang a banner, etc, and leave the "church banners," "party banners," and other blatant sales blogs to less literary folk. But enough is enough and I'm going to hype something specific today.

When ordering from Esigns, you eventually reach a spork in the online ordering road. A spork because, well, you end up with three choices (tuning forks have 2 tines, and food forks have three or four...salad, oyster, I dunno?).

The first option is to upload a digital file with your completed design. Piece of cake but you won't be shown a digital proof of your file and for two very good reasons. One, if you're ordering a 3' x 6' banner, will a 3" by 6" image on your computer monitor really do the actual file justice? Nope - you're just seeing a tiny version and almost everything looks good at that size. Second reason - we'd be restricting what you, our customer, can upload. If you want to send us Word document, we want to be able to receive it, and not just turn you away at the ordering portal saying, "send us a jpg or pdf" instead...afterall, if you know what you're doing in Word, you can make a darn spiffy banner. When uploading a file, you should always review a company's file setup guide.

The second option (and this shouldn't be construed as a lesser option on the above) is to use our Design Online with Text and Pictures software. This software was created by Esigns and after looking at all of our online competitors we could find (c'mon...everybody does it) we know that our design software is the best. Give it a shot - it creates a live, online proof while you work. You can upload your own files into it, use our backgrounds, text, layer items...just have some fun. It's like Willie Wonka's Chocolate Factory for the banner industry. Fun and delicious.

The last option...yeah. Design Online, Text Only. Honestly, I'm not thrilled with this option. This option seems to have the biggest learning curve, despite being the easiest of the three. If you spend the time on it, you can get a good looking banner at a ridiculuous price, but most people rush through it. The big thing is what you see on the screen is what you're going to get. Now, if you don't like what you see on the screen, I suggest clicking on the "Live Help" link that is in the upper right-hand corner of our site (if this link isn't here, that means we're not available - if it is there, you'll be talking to an actual Esigns Employee in a few moments after clicking on it).

So, the three design/ordering options - all are good for what they're intended for, with the first two being the bestest to be found in this industry. If you've been reading our blog, either you're a customer and know what we're talking about, or you're trying to make up your mind on ordering. In which case, give it a shot. You won't be disappointed.

Vinyl Banner Construction

While there are various banner materials that can, and are, used in the large formating printing industry, but at Esigns.com, we print on 13 oz. vinyl, using semi-solvent, UV-resistant inks. This is followed by heat-welding the hems and installing grommets every 2-3 feet along sides 5' or longer.

Now why is that first run-on sentence and its much smaller co-hort important? We'll take it piece by piece.

Thirteen ounces refers to the weight per square yard of the material. This weight is the industry standard for outdoor use. While there are lighter and heavier vinyl, this vinyl weight is a great all-purpose weight and holds up quite well to the elements and just about anything you can throw at it (no sharp objects, please). For the sake of brevity, I'll move on, but weight versus thickness (mil) is covered on the Esigns Facebook Page.

Next comes the inks. Now everyone knows about CMYK, RGB, spot process, etc, right? If not, let me know and I'll really get into the nitty gritty. For this post, all that's important is that we digitally print in full color, using semi-solvent inks. In English, your banners are printed as you design them with fantastically vivid colors. The UV-resistant inks just make sure you don't have to worry about them fading in the sunlight.

After your banners and signs print, they're moved to our finishing department, which starts by heat-welding the seams. This adds additional strength to the edges. Once done, Finishing grommets your vinyl banners for ease of installation. And even with the grommets, nothing was left to chance. We tested a lot of machines and inspected lots of the little guys before deciding on the nickel grommets we use today, all so you'd be receiving the best signs possible.

Thank you for reading,
Esigns

Convention and Trade Show Banners

The first time I went to a trade show in an "exhibitor-type" capacity was 9 years ago. It was for a small company, in a very different industry than I'm now in, and we had a couple of tables and our props which were just tools of the trade. I think it was even a corner lot.

In walking around the show, I saw quite a few of our competitors and for the most part, their setup was all fairly similar to our own and in the end, we didn't get much business out of it. However, in looking at some of the other companies there, they must get plenty as they had the nicest booths, complete with vinyl banners acting as table skirts, proudly proclaiming to all who passed by who they were.

Behind their booths, visually assaulting the eyes of everyone wandering past, were usually more signs or items or interest, all set to lure you in - and why wouldn't you go in? You'd think to yourself, this company, with all its graphic allure, must be a great company. Afterall, they can afford all these banners and signs.

What I took away from that experience was just more of the same old thing for business - you gotta look successful to be successful. We'd gotten two jobs out of that home show, mainly because when the first interested customer asked if we could clean the insides of her skylights that were 25' up, my co-worker simply said, "Yeah, we've got a Chitin" and she didn't ask what that meant - me, on the top rung of an 12' ladder set on an 8' scaffold.

But I need to get back on topic. To look successful in a conventionesque environment, you need signage. Luckily, with today's digital printing processes you can get great looking, full process color vinyl banners at an affordable price. And unlike 10 years ago, where color and intricacy drove price, you can now have your signs printed in any colors you can design them in, without price being an issue.

Pantone vs. CMYK: Fight!

Pantone is the most popular color matching system used to print spot colors. This means that each color is printed with its own ink, instead of being printed using a blend of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black (known as process color) to achieve a similar color.

Similar, because even if Pantone provides the corresponding CMYK breakdown, per Pantone there is a level of expected and acceptable variance. As a digital printer, it is our job to make sure we fall within that level of variance.

Why not just print spot colors and use Pantone? Well, spot colors are great for large print runs with three or less colors - say 10,000 business cards without much going on besides a simple 2-3 color logo.

Digital printing has made "on-demand" printing a viable option for small businesses needing affordable signage and unlike Henry Ford's Model T, black isn't the only color. Pantone however, is a bit like Ford's assembly line car. It stays affordable by limiting choices (large print runs with few colors printed).

CMYK and digital printing is more like William Durant's Model D, which was Chevrolet's V8-Powered Roadster. Instead of just getting it in black, with two gears, you get to play with it and make it your own.

Now, before any of industry pro's get involved and say that Pantone has a great number of "core colors" than CMYK, and therefore is the more versatile system, lets discuss one thing - A photograph would be printed using the four-color printing process, not Pantone. This is because, while Pantone has colors outside of the process color range, full color printing needs to be capable of reproducing a full range of color, hence it is the dominant method.

And when printing vinyl banners, you want that full range, and we want to be able to print your banner in any color you can design it in and know that it will look great and get to you fast.

So, your choice is limited but great color, or every color you can design as well as knowing they'll look great because of our color management process? Would it be fair to say CMYK wins by TKO?

Any questions? Any recommendations for the next Banner Fight Club?

RGB vs. CMYK: Fight!

We're often asked about which color mode someone should use when setting up a file for sign printing for use with ordering custom banners and the answer is a surprise to most people - RGB. Sure, we print in CMYK, but thats because you can't actually print in RGB...CMYK is for pigments (ink) while RGB is for light (like computer monitors and TV) and pigment and light are quite different.

Think of it this way, when your TV is off, your screen is black. RGB adds light to make colors. If all light is represented, we get white. With printing, we start with white media (all light) and add CMYK pigments to it, effectively subtracting light.

Now, back to why RGB is better is better even. CMYK is percentage based and the K (black) is just extra, leaving us with about 1,000,000 million colors that we can print. I remember growing up, thinking a box of Crayola 64 was huge. RGB, being light based, uses 256 levels of brightness for their three colors, meaning 16,777,216 coor possibilities.

So, which would you rather have? Me too. But I'm sure you're all wondering how we can fake your RGB colors using CMYK. This is done through careful color management on our part. Our printers are profiled to allow for slight variations in media color, to get the closest match possible to your actual design (and even if you change the color mode to CMYK, you're still looking at it in RGB on your monitor, only instead of highly calibrated printers faking it, your monitor is).

So, in summary, RGB provides a broader color spectrum that is visible to the human eye than CMYK, and while we print in CMYK we're equipped to "fake" RGB as best as possible for you. An added bonus is that RGB files are smaller, which makes them easier to send, load, and work with. Plus, if you convert to CMYK, you'll loose information that you'll find useful if you ever want to convert to a different medium, such as a website.

Tomorrow, I think we'll tackle Pantone.

Advertising with Yard Signs

Fall has definitely arrived - leaves are changes and, in some places already falling. If you're in the lawn maintenance business, grass cutting will be slowing down soon and it is time to start advertising your leaf removal services.

Depending on your particular business model, bandit yard signs may be an ideal marketing solution. You can place them in yards as your crews work (unless you've got a branded trailer and/or truck parked at the curb) and, in some locales, you can even install them on corners and near highways. Just check first with your local municipality concerning temporary sign regulations on public lands.

So, if you're placing the yard signs on private property or public access land, what do you need to know? The most common size yard sign is 18" tall by 24" wide. This is important because it means you've got a limited amount of space to get your message across - basically, your branded look/logo and the service you're interested in because you want it easy for passing traffic to read. And always spring for the double-sided yard signs as this just doubles their effectiveness.

You'll also need the wire stakes to install them with (at esigns.com, they're included free of charge). These are simple H-stakes, with two prongs going into the flutes of the signs, and the other end being inserted into the ground, making installing and removing them quite easy. When they're not in use, store them flat to avoid warping.

And that is really all that you need to know about using yard signs for advertising. Wait, one more thing - the cost associated with this type of marketing is quite low, making it quite effective, especially for service companies.