If you are new to business and are looking to start promoting yourself, designing and displaying your own signs and banners is one of the best ways to get your name known. To help provide an insight into graphics and printing we have provided a glossary explaining some commonly used terms in printing.

• Appliqué is a method for creating banners. It involves taking artwork from a piece of nylon or satin and stitching it onto another fabric such as cloth or vinyl to create the final design.
• Bunting is a loosely woven fabric used for making flags.
• CAD is computer aided design. CAD is commonly used in engineering and architecture but can also be used for mass producing banner designs.
• Dacron is a form of cloth made from artificial fibres used for making banners.
• Error Diffusion is a process of dithering for bitmaps which maintains the correct colours.
• Different File Formats have varying qualities of resolution. When sending images to be printed it is important to get a high quality image.
• A Grommet is a hole in a flag usually reinforced with a metal ring used for placing a flag through a flagpole.

• A Hue is another name for a shade or tint of a colour.
• Inkjet printing is a form of direct printing used for banners and signs. Inkjet is good for making large or small quantities of banners.
• Jagging is another term for aliasing. Aliasing is when you have images with a resolution too low resulting in jagged edges on your design.
• Laminate is a thin layer of plastic applied to a surface such as vinyl to protect against humidity and general wear and tear.
• Media (in printing) is the blank surface you use to print onto. Examples include vinyl, polyester and canvas.
• Nylon is a man made, resilient material commonly used for printing on for banners.
• Opacity is used to measure how transparent a shade is which is useful for layering complimentary colours on a banner.
• Polyknit is a durable material made from polyester. Suitable for indoor and outdoor displaying.
• Queue is another name for a print spooler. Print spooler is a term used to describe a location where data is stored for an image or text before it is sent to a printer.
• A Raster is an image made up from individual pixels.

• Sharpening is a method for improving the resolution of an image by increasing the local contrast.
• Thermal Transfer is a printing method where high temperatures are used to transfer dye from a foil onto a printable surface.
• UV Filters are used to reduce fading and discolouration of laminated surfaces.
• Vinyl is an extremely durable man made material useful for outdoor banners.
• Wind Vents are added to large outdoor banners to allow wind to flow through them without causing damage.