With so many different types of Banner materials on the market these days, sifting through the thousands of banner printing web sites can be a daunting task. I’m here to give you some clarity on what banner material you should order. It all starts with what type of event or product you're trying to market with your banner and whether it will be used indoors or outdoors.

Lets start with 13 oz. 13 ounce banner material is the most common banner material in the world and the most versatile. This material is what you see when you see a banner hanging on the side of a building or used for a light pole banner. Even though this material isn't designed to print double sided we still make double sided banners with 13oz. This works by printing the client's artwork head to head and folding the material like a big taco, and if needed, extra material can be sewn in the middle to help keep light from passing through.

We also leave extra material on the top and bottom for pole pockets, how banners slide onto the poles, and one grommet on the inside is used to zip tie the banner to the pole to keep the banner from sliding off on windy days. You can see the fibers up close in the 13 oz banner, and these are what make it more durable than 15 oz.

13 oz. up close

Another use for 13 oz. banner material is building banners, which are really common in the commercial real estate market for marketing large industrial buildings for sale on the side of freeways. This is a low cost high impact way to let potential buyers know these buildings are for sale since these large banners are visible from a long ways away.

13 oz. building banner

Trade Show banners can also be produced out of 13 oz. banner material. We use really neat banner framing systems and attach these to trade show booths to make really large seamless images that can be changed out with ease. This is a great way to go instead of wrapping your booth with adhesive back vinyl and incurring all the extra cost of having to pay a professional graphic installer. You would also have to remove them from your booth for the next trade show, which can be tough depending on the type of material that was used, and would most likely leave adhesives behind on the surface of your booth that would need to be cleaned.

13 oz. banner

Now lets get into 15 oz. Super Smooth banner material. Super Smooth is really for indoor use only. 15 oz. super smooth has a very smooth surface and makes a really nice image when printed since it doesn't have all the fibers for strength like 13 oz. has. Just because we are calling this 15 oz. and it sounds bigger and badder don’t be fooled, 13 oz. is actually much stronger than this texture. If the surface fibers are what make it stronger, the fibers holding it together, 15 oz. super smooth doesn't have these and that's what makes the surface so smooth and nice for printing.

15 oz. up close

This material does have some very cool qualities besides being smooth and printing nice, it has a nice little thing called block out. Whats block out? This is a black material that is laminated in the middle of the banner material that does not allow light to pass through. So when you're at a trade show and you're using 15 oz. super smooth at a banner stand, the light passing through doesn't allow you to see the artwork printed on the other side. It is also used for hanging banners in windows at retail stores for the same reason, so your artwork is impactful inside and out.

15 oz. banner

Whatever size or purpose it may have, get a quote for your banner needs today!