Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors
Filter by Categories
Banners
Decals
Graphic Display Printing Guide
Signs
Trade Show
Traffic Signs
Call 509.483.8000
Zero complaints in 20 years!

Why Sign Makers and Their Clients Love Digital Printing

Digital Sign Printing

In some past articles I reviewed the techniques involved in how sign makers screen print signs, and I also explored various plastic materials and how they were used. Today I’m going to talk about the revolution digital printing has brought to the print industry in the past 10 to 15 years.

In the beginning, Johannes Gutenberg invented moveable type, revolutionizing the world into the modern era. One thing led to another (I will save the history of printing for 20 more articles later), and now we all have digital signage press!

In the Good Old Days,

Keep Reading →

Decent Plastic Sign Materials To Get at a Reasonable Price

Printing on Plastics

In my last post, I gave you a thumbnail sketch of what it takes for companies that make sign prints using the screen printing process. This time I will deal more specifically with the various types.

There is a specific ink set for screen printing plastic displays, as there is for vinyl, glass, or wood items. If you’re going to make screen-printed pvc or plastic yard graphic signage, you’d need to contact your ink supplier to ask what type of ink is best for the various materials you’ll be using in the production process. Two major ink brands we’ve used in the past are Naz-Dar™ and Sericol™,

Keep Reading →

Where to Find a Banner Printer to Print a Full Color Banner

4CP Printing of Banners

Up until the last decade, full color press was the domain of large companies that could afford the substantial color printing prices to make a banner (or rather, thousands of them).

But to produce a banner for a small business – well, let’s just say that costs were prohibitive to small business. High volume could bring expenses down to a reasonable price, but a small business could never afford to get one in full color.

Well, first off, know that I’m not going to quote print prices right here and now, but my goal here is to educate you,

Keep Reading →

Full Color Printing from Sign Companies

4CP Printing

It used to be that sign companies produced full color printing for only the big corporations like Coca-Cola, IBM, or Xerox (back when they were still a dominant player). This technology was expensive unless it was done in huge volume, especially when companies printed larger format advertising media such as posters or banners or the like.

With the onset of digital press in the 1990’s, however, businesses were able to offer affordable 4CP or 4-color process printing – to smaller corporations and companies. Today, most are able to offer to even Mom & Pop businesses.

What is 4CP/4-color Process?

Keep Reading →

Full Color Printing of Vinyl Decal Stickers for Small Businesses

Vinyl Sticker Printing

I’ve mentioned in other posts that full color printing of banners, signs, and displays was once the sole domain of large corporations. Because you needed large volumes to be cost-effective, these print media were mainly produced by offset printers or screen printers.

This article explores how all that has changed, including pressing of vinyl decal stickers. Print method on various advertising media including vinyl decal stickers went digital in the 1990’s and has changed the look of business since.

Most of the time we’ve found with 4 CP of vinyl decal stickers, that they and even nominally small ones  (500 or more) are still produced most economically with screen,,

Keep Reading →

Traffic Street Signs – USDOT Categories and Regulations

different road signs

Traffic street signs include a huge variety of road markers in the US, and even more in the rest of the world. They are regulated in every country in the world by their governments, and here in the US, the USDOT oversees every state’s DOT regarding traffic street signs.

The US Government’s specific regulator, the United States Department of Transportation, or the USDOT, has a manual, called the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, or the MUTCD, which assigns letter and number codes to the various types we drive by on a daily basis.

Specified Traffic Street Signs and the Regulation of Traffic Regulation Signs

One of the most common categories are the regulatory signs.

Keep Reading →

Do Slow Children Signs Imperil Our Kids?

slow street signage

On May 18, 2011, Tom Vanderbilt posted an article in the online “Slate” magazine an article claiming that Slow Children signs are dangerous to kids. Of course, it’s an opinion editorial, so Tom has a right to state his opinion of such – which go by lots of different names, but for sake of brevity, we’ll stick with the one mentioned above for counterpoint article.

First, let me say that I think Tom is probably a great guy, though I don’t personally know him. But on this occasion, if he were my friend, we’d have to have a rousing discussion about this.

Keep Reading →

Digital Traffic Signs or Illuminated Traffic Signs

Digital Signage

While these two types can cross over, Digital Traffic Signs and Illuminated Traffic Signs aren’t necessarily the same thing.

Differences Between Digital Traffic Signs and Illuminated Traffic Signs

Digital Types  are typically lighted with LED’s (Light Emitting Diodes) and may have a small section that shows a number or series of numbers and letters, such as you might see at some airports, or can also be electronic reader boards with messages for oncoming motorists.

Illuminated types, on the other hand, may include digital kinds, but may simply be a sign that is lighted from below with directional lamps,

Keep Reading →

Who Regulates Custom Traffic Signs?

Customized Traffic Signs

A customized signage that is non-standard. Standard signs, as discussed in the previous post, are the ones like Stop, School Zone signs, or Speed Limit guide markers. Custom traffic signs are used in private communities and military bases. They are even used on the interstate.

In the previous article I discussed standards for reflective road signs which are set nationally by the US Department of Transportation (USDOT), or by local states conforming to the USDOT’s Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD). This manual gives all the regulations for various aluminum traffic signs, but doesn’t address a non-standard or personalized one.

Keep Reading →

USDOT Standards for Reflective Traffic and Road Signs

large format Reflective Signage

As you drive down the various roads and highways, you’d certainly be lost frequently, especially at night, if you didn’t have reflective traffic signs.

Back when I was a young man in my early 20’s, I spent a few winters in the Southern U.S. and was amazed at the lack of such signposts! Even more, I was amazed at how people knew how to get around without them.

One conversation I remember having with a Southern gentleman, an old-timer in Mississippi, went something like this…”ya’ll just travel yonda up Hwy. 357 and you’ll see a big old oak tree standin’

Keep Reading →

© Copyright 2017, Visigraph
509.483.8000