Personalised birthday banner: pick the spot first, then the words and the photo

A personalised birthday banner goes wrong in one of three ways: it is too small to read from the pavement, it has too many words, or the photo prints soft. Get the order of decisions right and all three go away. Decide where it will hang, pick the size that suits that spot, write no more than three lines, then find the sharpest photo you have. Everything else (hanging, timing, keeping it for next year) is simple once those are settled.

Decision one: where will people read it from? #

Stand where your guests will stand. A banner in the lounge is read from two or three metres away. One on the front fence is read from the other side of the road, maybe 10 or 12 metres off. A banner behind a top table is seen across a function room. Each distance asks for a different size, and measuring the space beats guessing every time. Our guide on choosing a banner size goes deeper; these are sensible places to start.

The spot	Size to try first	What fits on it
Above a sofa, doorway or fireplace	4 ft × 2 ft (1219 × 610 mm) or 4 ft 11 in × 1 ft 8 in (1500 × 500 mm)	Name, age and a small photo
Garden fence or front of the house	6 ft × 3 ft (1829 × 914 mm) or 8 ft × 3 ft (2438 × 914 mm)	Name and age, big and bold
Hall, pub room or marquee	8 ft × 4 ft (2438 × 1219 mm) or 9 ft 10 in × 3 ft 3 in (3000 × 1000 mm)	Room for a photo strip
Selfie corner	Backdrop, 6 ft 7 in × 6 ft 7 in (2000 × 2000 mm) or bigger	A full design people stand in front of

Our birthday banners come in 13 stock sizes, or any custom size from 300 mm up to 16 ft 5 in × 9 ft 10 in (5000 × 3000 mm). If the fence is the plan, the 6 ft × 3 ft PVC banner is the size most people land on.

Decision two: three lines on a personalised birthday banner #

Every extra word shrinks the others. The banners that read best carry a name, an age or occasion, and one short extra line at most.

1. The name. The largest thing on the banner. Use what the family calls them: “Nana Pat” beats a full formal name.
2. The number or occasion. “is 50!”, “Happy 18th” or “Welcome to the world”, almost as big as the name.
3. An optional extra. The date, a nickname or “Love from all of us”. Small, and fine to leave off.

For letter size, a handy rule is about 25 mm of capital letter height for every 3 metres of reading distance. So a banner read from 12 metres away needs capitals of roughly 100 mm. Read the spelling out loud before you order, twice for names; we print the wording you send or build in the designer.

Keep the street side private

A front-of-house banner is a public notice. Leave off surnames, house numbers and full dates of birth if you would rather passers-by did not learn them. “Happy 40th Dave” tells the neighbours plenty.

Ideas that suit the age #

• First birthdays and little ones: bright colours, rounded letters, and the number as the hero. A newborn photo beside a recent one works well on the bigger sizes.
• 16th, 18th and 21st: a strip of photos through the years, from baby to now. Many teenagers prefer a darker, cleaner style to cartoons, so check before you commit.
• 30th, 40th and 50th: the embarrassing photo or the in-joke, as long as the birthday person will laugh when the whole street sees it. For a surprise, the banner facing the road is part of the reveal.
• 60th and beyond: a “then and now” pair, such as a wedding photo next to a recent one. Plain, large lettering and warm words over clever ones.

Getting the photo to print sharp #

The photo is where a personalised birthday banner looks either lovely or blurry. A phone photo from the last few years usually has plenty of pixels for a panel. An old print should be scanned at high resolution, not photographed on a table, which adds glare and softness. Pictures saved from social media are shrunk and compressed, so ask whoever took the photo for the original file.

As a rough guide at 100 dpi:

• A photo 300 mm tall on the banner needs about 1200 pixels of height.
• A photo 600 mm tall (most of a 2 ft high banner) needs about 2400 pixels.
• A photo filling a whole 6 ft × 3 ft banner needs about 7200 × 3600 pixels.

The online designer warns you when a photo is too small for the space you have stretched it into. More on this in our image resolution guide.

Indoors only? Consider PVC-free #

Birthday banners are printed on 440gsm PVC. It shrugs off a shower on the fence and rolls up for next time. If yours will only ever hang indoors, PVC-free banners on 400gsm material are the alternative. Party backdrops come in either material, and a rigid party sign board from A3 to A1 makes a neat welcome sign on an easel by the door.

Putting it up without marking the paintwork #

Order hemmed edges and eyelets (plastic or metal), and add a bag or two of cable ties at checkout so you are not hunting for string on the day.

• Fence or railings: a cable tie through each eyelet, snug rather than drum tight.
• Outside walls: bungees or cord to solid hooks already in place. Gutters and downpipes are not anchors.
• Inside walls: removable adhesive hooks through the eyelets, or cord looped over a curtain pole. Tape straight onto fresh paint or wallpaper tends to lift it.

The full method is in hanging a banner.

Timing your personalised birthday banner #

Pick Express and a birthday banner is ready to go in 2 working days; Standard takes 4 and Saver 6. The count begins once both the order and the artwork are confirmed, and a backdrop on Express can leave after just 1 working day. Add 1 to 3 working days for the courier, and leave weekends and bank holidays out of your sums. For a Saturday party, confirming a Standard order on the Monday of the week before gives a comfortable cushion.

UK mainland delivery is £7.95, or free when the order comes to £100 or more after discounts. Banners over 3 m on any side, so 10 ft (3048 mm) and longer, add a one-off £15 oversize charge. The details are on our delivery page.

One banner, lots of birthdays #

A big family can get years out of a banner that just says “Happy Birthday” with no name or number. A personalised birthday banner, on the other hand, often becomes a keepsake. Either way, let it dry, then roll it print side out rather than folding (see storing banners). When it finally reaches the end, most household collections will not take PVC, so check your council’s rules on Recycle Now.

Stuck on size or wording? Tell us where it will hang and who it is for through the contact form, and we will point you at the right personalised birthday banner.