A roller banner gets a few seconds. Someone walks past your stand, your reception desk or your shop doorway, glances across, and either takes in who you are and what you offer or doesn't. Almost everything that decides which way that goes is settled before the banner is printed: how much you tried to say, where you put it, and whether the artwork was built at the right size.
This guide covers roller banner design from the brief to the print file. It applies equally to pull up banners, roll up banners and pop up banner stands, which are different names for the same thing: a printed panel that pulls up out of a base and stands on its own. If you are still choosing between formats, start with our guide to pop up banners and backdrops for trade shows and come back here once you know you want a roller.
Start With the Size You Are Designing For
Design to the real print size, not to a screen. The most common roller banner size is 0.8m wide by 2m tall, and that is the size of our pull up banner. It is narrow and very tall: two and a half times as high as it is wide. A layout that looks balanced on a landscape monitor will not survive being poured into that shape.
Three things follow from the proportions:
- You have one column. There is no room for side-by-side blocks of text. Everything stacks.
- The top third is the only part everyone sees. It sits at head height and above. The bottom third is at knee height, usually behind a table, a bag or another person.
- The top edge is clamped. The print is held in a metal strip at the top, so nothing important should sit right against that edge. Our templates mark it.
If you need something shorter or wider, a roller is the wrong tool. A vertical pop up comes in 1.2m, 1.4m and 2m heights, and a slimline straight up comes in a smaller 0.6m x 1.6m size for tighter spaces.
The Three Zones of a Roller Banner
Treat the panel as three stacked zones and give each one a single job.
Top zone (head height and above): who you are. Your logo and, if the name alone doesn't explain it, a line of five or six words saying what you do. This is what people read from across the room. Make the logo large. A logo that looks generous on screen often prints at the size of a paperback; on a 2m banner it can comfortably be 50cm wide or more.
Middle zone (chest to waist): why they should stop. One strong image or one offer. A photo of the product, a result, a price, a date. Not all four. If you are using a photograph, this is where it goes, and it should be one photograph, not a collage.
Bottom zone (waist down): how to act. Website, phone number, a QR code if you use them. Keep it above the bottom fifth of the panel so it clears table height. Do not put anything here that the design cannot live without.
The most common mistake is treating the banner like a leaflet: opening hours, a list of twelve services, three paragraphs about the company. Nobody reads a paragraph on a banner. If a detail matters, it belongs on the flyer you hand over once they have stopped.
Text Size and How Far It Carries
A workable rule: every 2.5cm of letter height is readable from about 3 metres. So a headline that needs to be read from 9 metres away, across an aisle or a car park, wants letters around 7.5cm tall. Supporting text that only has to work at conversation distance can be 2 to 3cm.
In practice that means a roller banner holds very little text: a name, a line, an offer and a contact detail. Count the words. If you are past 20, start cutting.
Choose one typeface, two weights at most, and keep strong contrast between text and background. White or yellow on a dark colour and dark text on a pale colour both carry. Mid-grey on white, or text laid over a busy photograph, disappears from four metres.
Images and Logos: Getting Them Sharp
A 2m print is unforgiving. An image that looks crisp on a website is usually a few hundred pixels wide and turns to mush at full size.
- Supply logos as vector files where you can. That means an AI, EPS, SVG or a PDF exported from the original artwork. A vector logo stays sharp at any size. A small logo saved from a website usually does not.
- Photographs need 300 dpi at the size they print. A photo filling the full 0.8m width needs to be roughly 9,400 pixels wide. If your photo is smaller than that, use it smaller on the banner rather than stretching it.
- Use one hero image. A single large, sharp picture reads from a distance. Six small ones read as noise.
Preparing the Print File
Our artwork templates include a print-ready PDF for the pull up banner in both PVC and PET versions. Give it to your designer before they start, not after. The template is set up for this product and marks the bleed, the safe area and the metal strip at the top.
These are our standard artwork requirements:
- Format: PDF with vector graphics and outlined fonts is preferred. PNG with a transparent background and JPG are also accepted.
- Resolution: at least 300 dpi at the artwork size.
- Bleed and safe area: keep everything important inside the safe area and let background colours run out to the bleed.
- Colour: CMYK, ideally with Pantone references for your brand colours. RGB files are converted on our side and can shift slightly.
Outlining the fonts matters more than people expect. If the font isn't embedded or outlined, the file can open with a substitute typeface and the layout moves.
No designer? Request a quote and we will design the banner for you.
Material and Finish
Our pull up banners are available with a PVC, PET or fabric print, in an Eco and a Deluxe version, and each one is supplied with a carry bag. Prices start at £66 for the Eco and £90 for the Deluxe, excluding VAT.
If you are not sure which print or version suits how you will use the banner, ask us before you order.
A Checklist Before You Send It to Print
- Is the artwork built on the template at full size, not scaled up from an A4 design?
- Can you read the name and the main line from the far side of the room?
- Is there one message, one image and one way to respond?
- Is everything important inside the safe area and clear of the top strip?
- Is the logo vector, and is every photo 300 dpi at its printed size?
- Are the fonts outlined and the file saved as CMYK PDF?
If the answer to all six is yes, you have covered the things that most often go wrong. Printing and delivery to mainland UK takes 7 to 10 working days from artwork approval, so work back from your event date and allow time for one round of changes.
Ready to order? See the pull up banner for sizes and prices, or browse the full banner range.
