Banner Resolution: part 1

Banner resolution: higher than you think

When you are having a banner printed, keep in mind that a banner is much bigger than a piece of paper. A 3×8 banner, which is a common banner size, is almost 37 times the size of regular typing paper.

If you are providing graphics or designing your own banner, you can either use vector graphics or pixel-based graphics. Many people like to include JPG logos or photos, which can’t be done without pixels, so it’s important to provide the highest resolution files possible. A good minimum is 100 dpi (dots per inch) at full size.

Let’s say you have a photo that is 3000 x 2000 pixels. In order to stay at the minimum 100 dpi resolution, just take the number of pixels and divide by 100. That gives you 30 by 20 inches at the largest. You can print a banner that size, but most are bigger.

So if you’re taking digital photos, make sure your camera is set to the highest quality possible. Most are set to medium resolution by default because that makes the files smaller. If you’re designing a new banner in a program like Photoshop, making the banner full size and 100 to 300 dpi will provide good resolution so the actual banner prints out without being pixellated.

Next week, we’ll cover why banner resolution is often lower than most other kinds of printing.