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Blog Posts Written By

Barry K. Brown

Barry Brown has been in the Sign, Banner, Decal and Display Business for over 30 years. It isn't what he thought he'd do with his life, but he says he knows too much now to do anything else!

Printing On and Purchasing Vinyl Stickers for Advertising

Vinyl Stickers

Sticker graphics can be used as labels, advertising, and industrial uses, to name a few reasons for printing on vinyl stickers. They come in a vast variation of sizes, from less than a square inch to 16 feet width rolls for semi truck trailers or storefront windows or transit bus graphic displays.

There are a few methods for printing but most smaller sizes, under 6 or 7 square feet, run in large volumes of 125 pieces or more are screen printed. Those larger than 7 or 8 square feet, especially smaller quantities, is now done on digital roll to roll printers.

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Professional Printing of Custom Vinyl Decals

Polyvinyl decals

You can use vinyl decals for many different projects or advertising. It comes in a huge variance in sizes. And, they can be produced in several ways. Printing is commonly done with a screen print press if they are not too big and you need a large quantity.

Companies producing graphic vinyl decals will also be able, in many cases, to digitally print a very large size, such as the type that are applied to storefront windows or semi-truck trailers. The large format is always imprinted digitally, as roll to roll printers are now pressing graphics up to 16′

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Online Banner Digital Printing – Vinyl Banner Material

Polyvinyl Banners

With the advent of the internet in the early 1990’s and the commercialization that followed, online purchasing, including online banner printing, has exploded, so much so that companies have been built or failed in the aftermath of the biggest development in consumer purchasing ever witnessed.

The production of custom vinyl banners exploded in the mid-2000’s, and several companies were responsible for the subsequent pricing collapse that still exists in this category today. But are consumers better off for the cheaper pricing? Maybe. Maybe not.

How Online Banner Printing of Vinyl Banners Changed in the Past 2 Decades

For instance,

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What to Look for in a Banner Printing Shop

Visigraph Client Terms

Back in the early 1990’s when I went into the sign making business, all you needed was a vinyl plotter and you could open a banner printing shop. In fact, guys were making great money hanging out banners for their shops and making decent money.

One of these shops, in fact, was part of the reason my Father and I decided to go into this business in 1991. One frigid February morning, my Dad had to go pick up some cut vinyl from the store he did business with in Spokane, WA. It was about 8:15 a.m., and so he walked up to the glass entry door,

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A History of Signs and Printing - Part 5

Wide Format Printer

In this final article on the history of signs and printing, I’ll show how the two came to be combined in such a way as to make the two categories as one. Flexography, offset printing, and lithography have all been magically combined into a new category (although the old categories have not completely disappeared) called digital imprinting.

Well, I thought I would be done with this series last time on signs and printing, and I did actually get into the late 20th century, but I didn’t really get to where they and makers crossed paths.

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A History of Signs and Printing - Part 4

lithographic printer

In this installment of the history of signs and printing, I’ll talk about history of printing system in human civilization with the vast improvements from the mid-1800’s until late in the 20th century. And where the two trades intersected to create a significant change  for many sign makers.

To recap the previous three articles on this particular topic, we’ve talked about how signage came to be used in the West and the wood display gave way (mostly) to electrical and neon in the past 100 years or so. This history has never been so fascinating –

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A History of Signs and Printing - Part 3

Bullock rotary press

The world is full of signage displays in the 21st century. Even in “3rd World” countries, there are lots of signs telling you where to go or marking stores or advertising. And while most of us may give passing thought to sign makers and printing, that’s probably the extent of your thought on the subject.

Recapping the previous two articles on the brief history of signs, we’ve now covered what they were used for and the standard media (wood) ones were made of up through electrical and neon in the past 100 years or so, hopefully this is somewhat interesting –

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A History of Signs and Printing - Part 2

Types of Signs

In this second article on the brief history of signage, we’ve now covered everything up until the 18th century until the present, and my hope is that you’ll have a great handle, whether you wanted a handle on it or not, all about sign making.

Hi again…as I said last time, if you look around, or drive around, when you live in any industrialized country on earth, your locale is full of signposts. Most of us simply accept that sign makers are all about signs and printing and that’s the extent of your thought on the subject.

From Neon and Internally Illuminated Signs to Full Color LED Displays

18th to 19th Century

As I stated in the final part of the of the last article,

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A History of Signs and Printing - Part 1

History of Sign Makers

If you’re like most people, you simply accept that sign makers are all about guide displays and printing, and that’s about it.

When you look around, or drive around, if you live in most industrialized countries on the planet, your world is full of signs. I’m going to give you a brief history so you’ll know, whether you wanted to know or not.

Where Sign Making, Printing, and Sign Makers Came From – A Short History

Stone Age

In the Stone Age, Grog and his wife, Groggette, sent a smoke signal invitation to Thor and his wife,

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Basic Screen Printing Compared to the Basics of Digital Printing

On-Screen Printing

Several hundred years ago when I made the fateful decision to get into the sign business, my first position was screen printing signs. Back when I started, you could print signs with lacquer inks and get high at the same time…those were the days!

Many companies who used on-screen print processing have switched over to digital printing, but there are still numerous companies that make use of this traditional method, and as far as I can tell, it isn’t going away anytime soon as was prognosticated by myself and other experts 5 years ago.

While digital imprinting has increased in popularity,

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