Ninefold PrintLarge Format
Signage, Banners and Displays
Large format is decided by where the piece lives. Indoors for a week and outdoors for a season are different substrates, different inks and usually different production partners.
Where It Lives
Substrate Follows the Environment
Almost every large format decision follows from one question: where does it go and for how long. Answer that first and the rest of the specification mostly settles itself.
Indoor or Outdoor
Outdoors means UV stable inks, weather resistant substrate and thinking about wind. Indoors opens up cheaper materials and finer detail, because the viewing distance is shorter and nothing has to survive rain.
Substrate
Coroplast for short term yard signage, aluminium composite for something permanent, foam board for indoor display, vinyl for banners and window graphics. Each behaves differently at the edges and at the fixings.
Mounting and Finishing
Grommets, hems, H stakes, standoffs, frames or adhesive. How it is fixed changes the artwork, because anything important has to stay clear of a grommet or a frame rail.
Viewing Distance
Type size follows from how far away it is read, not from what looks right on a screen. A sign read from a moving car needs cap heights that look absurd in a design file and correct on a roadside.
What Moves the Cost
Roughly in order of how much difference each one makes. No price is published here because the answer changes with quantity, stock and which manufacturer the work suits, and a number that ignores those is a number you cannot rely on.
- Substrate and thickness
- Total square footage, which is how most large format is priced
- Single or double sided
- Finishing: grommets, hems, cutting to shape
- Whether pieces are contour cut rather than rectangular
- Quantity, though setup matters less here than on press work
What to Send
Enough to get a comparable quote rather than five guesses. If some of it is not decided yet, say so, and it becomes part of the conversation instead of a blocker.
- Finished size, and whether it is flexible
- Where it is going and for how long
- Indoor or outdoor
- How it will be fixed or displayed
- Quantity, and whether sizes vary across the set
- Artwork, or the copy that has to appear
How We Produce It
Freight Is Part of the Decision
Rigid signage is bulky and freight is a real share of the cost, so the right partner is often the one closest to where the signs are going rather than the cheapest to print. We weigh that when matching the job, not after the quotes come back.
Related Reading
Worth Knowing Before You Specify One
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Send us your spec, or what you have so far.