File setup specifications
Vinyl banners and digital print banners.

Layout tips	File prep tips	Program tips	FTP Help
Mac Users Windows Users

File Formats:

We can print banners directly from your file or we can create the artwork for you.

At Quick Signs (banersontime.com), there are two quite different methods of banner sign making production:

1). Computer cut vinyl lettered banners. computer cut vinyl - solid spot colors)
2). Printed banners (digital prints using ink, dye, toner, resin or silk screen process)

Usually the process of banner production determines the type of artwork setup.

What determines the method of banner sign making? Budget, overall size of the sign, number of colors used, quantity of banners needed, quality of artwork, duration of use, type of banner material and other factors.

In some instances, at a savings to you, we will use a combination of computer cut vinyl and digital printing.

If at this point you are unsure of the production method we will use, please contact one of our knowledgeable customer sales representatives at 1 (714) 573-9313 to guide you through this banner making process.

General banner layout Tips: 

For banner printing, try to design images approximately 70-150 dpi at
full size, this will ensure the maximum output quality.

Computer cut vinyl banner making: Many of our vinyl lettered banners use what is called computer cut vinyl banner making. Other examples of computer cut vinyl signs are: vehicle lettering, window lettering, real estate signs, non-photo banners, do-it-yourself lettering, and most non-photographic signs. These letters or objects are cut out of a solid color (red, balck green, etc.) adhesive backed pressure sensitive vinyl and then transferred to vinyl banner material. Additional colors and special effects like drop shadows can be created by layering vinyl cut outs. When using the computer cut vinyl method of banner making, all artwork must be vector based (object oriented art). Vector files are usually created in drawing or illustration programs such as Adobe Illustrator, Macromedia Freehand , Corel Draw, and all sign making programs. Common file extensions for these drawing programs are .ai, vector .eps, .cdr., .dxf, and wmf. When preparing artwork for vinyl banners in vector format, see saving vector files for proper formatting. If you need help on preparing any of these file formats, please call our Quick Signs (bannersontime.com) art department for assistance toll free at (866) 267-4467.
*What is acceptable Vector based art?

Digital banner printing: When printing banners, as opposed to the above described computer cut vinyl banner making, we use a digital print method for banner production. For digital print banners, (4-color banner printing, banners with gradation fading, multiple colored banners, specific color matching, photographic banner printing, or detailed or comples artwork) artwork can be designed as vector based (see saving vector files below) or bitmap (see saving bitmap files below). Bitmap artwork is usually created in programs such as Adobe Photoshop, PhotoPaint, Corel Paint, Windows Paint, MacPaint and many other "paint" or "photo editing" programs. Usually the file extensions for these programs are tif, bmp, gif, jpg, eps, pcx, etc. If you need help on preparing any of these file formats for banner printing, please call our Quick Signs (bannersontime.com) art department for assistance toll free at (866) 267-4467.

Saving vector files for banner making: Our preferred file format for banner making is Adobe Illustrator (.ai). When saving files in vector format (outline format), dpi is only limited to the output device. File size is constant regardless of the size of the image. Because vector based programs use mathematical algorithmic calculations to determine size and shape, file size is usually small and these files can usually be e-mailed quickly. If you're not sure of what type of file type is needed to produce vinyl banner or digital print banner, please call Quick Signs (bannersontime.com) art department for assistance toll free at (866) 267-4467.

Saving bitmap files for banner making: Bitmap files are created when an image is scanned, taken from a digital camera or created in a bitmap editing program such as Adobe PhotoShop, Corel Photo Paint, Mac Paint, Windows Paint, and many other paint and/or photo programs. These files are primarily used for digital banner printing and are resolution dependent. The resolution of the artwork effects the crispness of detail and fineness of grain in an image. For satisfactory results of computer generated digital banner printing, the resolution should be set between 50 and 120 dpi at full size. Lower resolution can cause pixelization. Higher resolution has little effect on overall quality and greatly increases file size. The dpi size decision for banner making is determined by overall output size and viewing distance of proposed banner. Resolutions lower than 50dpi may exhibit pixelization, often called "jaggies". Bitmap files can be very large in size and are usually not sent by e-mail. It is not uncommon for a 2' x 3' full color image to have a file size of greater than 50 megabytes. If you need help on preparing any of these file formats, please call our Quick Signs (bannersontime.com) art department for assistance toll free at (866) 267-4467.

Color Information for banner making: When assigning a spot color to vector artwork, use a pantone color. We will attempt to make the closest color match. Keep in mind that what you see on your monitor may not look exactly the same as what we see on our monitor.  A good example is to go to a store selling TV sets and you'll easily see that each television picture displays different colors, even when they are showing the same program.

Note: Keep in mind that banner printing is quite different than printing off your inkjet printer at home. When printing banners, we use special UV inks formulated for banner printing, we use a different computer RIP drivers created especially for specific banner materials, we use a different printer - built exclusively for large format banners, and we print on vinyl specifically made for banners.


Media information: For banner making, we can accept MAC and PC high density 3-1/2" diskettes, MAC and PC Iomega Zip disks, and CD's. You can compress PC files by using any PC based self-extracting compression utility or WinZip. E-mail is available with file size not to exceed 15MB.  If your file size is largere than 15MB, please call our Quick Signs (bannersontime.com) art department for assistance toll free at (866) 267-4467

Mac Users:

If you are creating a banner on a MAC, the file needs to be saved as an Adobe Illustrator or EPS format. All text must be "converted to curves" or "outlines". We cannot read Mac fonts. If you are creating artwork for a computer cut vinyl banner, the most compatible format is Adobe Illustrator saved as Illustrator EPS for 1-bit IBM version 5.0. Files created in publishing programs like Quark or PageMaker generally will not output. It is best to use an illustration or drawing program such as Adobe Illustrator, Freehand, or Corel Draw for Mac. If you need help on preparing any of these file formats, please call our Quick Signs (bannersontime.com) art department for assistance toll free at (866) 267-4467.

Additional Requirements:
When sending a file to us, it is necessary to provide a printout of the design. This helps us know what the finished product should look like.

We are not responsible for original files being lost or damaged.

Font Information: Convert all text to "curves" or "outlines" (converted text creates a graphic that can no longer be text edited).

Popular Programs (PC/MAC)
- Adobe Illustrator
- Adobe PageMaker
- Adobe Photoshop
- Aldus (Macromedia) Freehand
- Corel Draw
- Corel Photo Paint
- Microsoft Power Point
- Microsoft Word
- Quark Express

If you are creating your artwork in any of these programs, please follow the procedures to ensure successful output of our sign and./or graphics.

Adobe Illustrator (PC and MAC) - This seems to be the best all around program for banner making and sign making. All text must be converted to outlines - we cannot read Mac fonts. For Computer cut vinyl lettered banners, all vector files must be single layer only - that is, no overlapping layers. When viewing in preview mode, no lines can crisscross. All overlapping objects of a given color must be welded together. Gradations cannot be used for vinyl lettered banners (vinyl film is cut as a solid spot color). Gradations require a digital banner print process (see Digital banner printing). Gradations many times can cause problems when importing into our programs, to avoid these problems please save as .ai and we will convert to bitmap format in our sign making programs. When saving files for banner printing as vector format, MAC users, save as illustrator EPS as 1-bit IBM format. PC users, save as Illustrator ver. 5.0. If you need help on preparing any of these file formats, please call our Quick Signs (bannersontime.com) art department for assistance toll free at (866) 267-4467.

(We are currently running Illustrator vers. 10.0)

Adobe PageMaker - (PC and MAC) At this time we are unable to accept PageMaker files. Files created in PageMaker generally do not output files in a format that we can use. It is best to use an illustration or graphics creation program such as Adobe Illustrator or CorelDraw. If you need help help on preparing any of these file formats, please call our Quick Signs (bannersontime.com) art department for assistance toll free at (866) 267-4467.

Adobe PhotoShop - (PC and MAC) Save as PhotoShop or as .tif. 
(We are currently running PhotoShop ver. 7)

Aldus (Macromedia) Freehand (MAC and PC) We can import Freehand documents, but we would prefer you save as Illustrator format Ver. 3.0 because an export to a file format that we support will always come through cleaner than us trying to import a file.

Corel Draw - (PC and MAC) All text must be converted to curves (outlines) or we may be unable to read your fonts. For Computer cut vinyl lettering and graphics, all vector files must be single layer only - that is, no overlapping layers. When viewing in wire frame mode, no lines can crisscross. All objects of a given color must be welded together. Gradations cannot be imported for vinyl cutting as vinyl is cut as a solid shape (spot color). Gradations require a digital print process. Gradations many times can cause problems when importing into programs, to avoid these problems please export as .ai and we will convert to bitmap in our sign making programs. When saving files as vector format, save files as CDR or export as Illustrator 5.0. Please make sure that all text is converted to curves (located on menu bar under arrange in Corel program). If you need help on preparing any of these file formats, please call our Quick Signs (bannersontime.com) art department for assistance toll free at (866) 267-4467.
(We are currently running Corel ver. 10.0)

Corel Photo Paint - Save image as .tif or High resolution jpeg.
(we are currently running Corel ver. 10.0)

Microsoft PowerPoint - Save as Power point format. Note: Quality of placed picture (if any) is dependent on the resolution of the original file (if file is a bitmap). In some instances we have had a problem with converting PowerPoint files. If you need help on preparing any of these file formats, please call our Quick Signs (bannersontime.com) art department for assistance toll free at (866) 267-4467.
(We are currently running Office 2000)

Microsoft Word - Save file as a Word/95.doc. Since signs can not be produced using this program, it is not the most reliable format. We need to cut the text and paste into drawing programs. When we do this font problems can occur. If you need help on preparing any of these file formats, please call our Quick Signs (bannersontime.com) art department for assistance toll free at (866) 267-4467.
(We are currently running Office 2000)