When advertising products or services bigger is almost always better, large format printing is used mainly for promotional material such as banners and posters.
The application will depend on the material required and whether it needs to be waterproof.
The most popular poster sizes are A3, A2, A1 and A0 on a lightweight paper for easy handling. Their primary use is short-term special offers and typically used inside a frame.
The primary use of banners is longer term outdoor use and often printed on weather resistant material to increase the usable lifespan.
Wide format printing is most commonly used in areas with a high volume of people, therefore the poster and the creative on the poster needs to be big enough and prominent enough to be seen.
Hotels and restaurants use banners outside to notify people of special deals.
Businesses use them at trade shows to promote products or their brand.
Charities use banners to promote an event or give directions to an event.
The graphics for large format is slightly different to that of graphic design for marketing collateral. Although you have more room on this type of printing each element has to be well spaced out and large enough to be read.
You also need to consider the colouring, including the colour of the text and graphics as well as the background colour of the material. Additionally the background of the surrounding area where the banner will be placed.
Where possible use high impact solid colours and avoid gradients.
Be careful of low quality images, even a good quality JPEG or PNG can quickly become pixelated (fuzzy or blurred) when printed in large format. The best solution is to use vector images, these allow the image to be scaled to any size without losing quality.
The printing process will vary depending on the application. Most posters are printed using A commercial inkjet printer, whereas more permanent outside wide format printing such as signs typically use screen printing.
Ready to get started with your large format printing needs?
Contact one of our friendly team on 0208 050 2131 or click here to request a quote
Ready to get started?
Contact one of our friendly team on 0208 050 2131 or request a quote…
