Using our free banner designer: logo to basket in about 20 minutes

Our free banner designer lives on every banner product page. Press Design it online, drop in your logo, type your details, choose a purpose and a layout, sort anything the checks flag, then finish it. The finished design lands in your basket with no design fee, so you pay for the printing and nothing else. Set aside about 20 minutes the first time; less once you know your way round.

Get three things ready first #

• Your logo. A big PNG or an SVG prints sharpest. No logo? That’s fine, there’s a workaround below.
• Your words. Decide what you want to say before you open anything. It’s much quicker than writing on the canvas.
• Your size. Measure where the banner will go. Our guide on what size banner you need saves a lot of reprints. PVC banners start at 4 ft × 2 ft (1219 × 610 mm), and popular sizes such as the 6 ft × 3 ft PVC banner and 8 ft × 3 ft PVC banner have their own pages. Odd space? Try custom size banners.

You don’t need an account. Your draft saves in the browser on the device you’re using, so you can shut the designer and pick up later on that same phone or computer. Eyelets, hems and cable ties are chosen on the product page, before or after you design.

The free banner designer, step by step #

1. Launch it. Scroll the product page to the “Design your banner online” panel and hit the button. The canvas opens full screen, already set to the size you’d picked; change it any time using the size menu along the top.
2. Add your logo. First thing you’ll see is “Step 1: upload your logo”. It accepts PNG, JPG, SVG or PDF. Logo-less? Choose the option to use your company name as a wordmark instead, and carry on.
3. Type Your details. Fill in the fields: business name, a one-liner about what you do, a list of services with each on its own line, then phone, email, web address and postal address. The layouts all feed off these, and your device keeps them for your next design.
4. Choose a purpose, then a look. The Templates tab asks what the banner’s for. There are eight answers, running from My business and Grand opening through to Now hiring, To let and Site information. After that, flick between styles (Bold, Classic, Corporate, Modern and others) until one feels right.
5. Tweak words and colour. In the Words tab you’ll find slots for a headline, a supporting line, a list and a call to action. Anything on the canvas can be clicked: drag it to shift it, grab a corner to scale it, double-click text to edit. Colour combinations taken from your logo wait in the side panels.
6. Clear the red items. Look at the Checks list and deal with every red entry. Each one comes with a “Show me” link, which picks out the problem on the canvas for you.
7. Look it over and finish. Open the final check window. Flick through Preview, Mock-up and To scale, tick the box saying you confirm the design, and attach it to your order.
8. Basket it. You’re returned to the product page. Pick how many and how fast, then add it to your basket, where the artwork shows as designed online by you, at no cost.

Reading the lines on the canvas #

A little key at the bottom of the screen explains three guide lines:

Eyelet positions appear on screen as a guide only and are never printed. The grid button, top right, switches the guides on and off, with undo, redo and zoom alongside. For the thinking behind the margins, see bleed and safe area.

What the checks are telling you #

The free banner designer keeps an eye on your work the whole time, and the number on the Checks button tells you how many things it’s spotted. They come in two colours.

Red: sort these or you can’t finish

• Dummy wording from the template, for example a made-up company name or an 01234 phone number, that you haven’t replaced.
• A space for a logo with no logo in it. Upload one, or delete the empty frame.
• A line of text so close to the edge that some of it would be cut away.

Amber: advice, but listen to it

• Anything sitting beyond the dashed safe line. It won’t stop you, but pull it inside.
• Capital letters too small for someone roughly 10 m away, with a height it suggests instead.
• A photo or logo that will end up below 100 dpi once stretched to banner size, which can look fuzzy.
• Words covered by a shape, or in a colour too close to whatever’s behind them.

Of all of these, the capitals one gets ignored most and matters most. People read a banner from across a road or a car park, and three big words beat ten small ones every time. For the actual heights, see sign letter height and reading distance.

Five habits of banners that get read #

• One message. Name, what you do in a handful of words, and a phone number. That’s plenty on a 6 ft × 3 ft (1829 × 914 mm) banner.
• Make the number big. It’s usually the one thing people need from a distance.
• Go for contrast. Dark on light or light on dark. Skip text over busy photos.
• Cut what you don’t need. On your own premises, the address can usually go.
• Exposed spot? Use mesh. For fences and scaffolding, a mesh banner lets wind through, and the designer works on mesh exactly the same way. Hanging it inside instead? Look at indoor banners.

After you finish #

The moment you finish, a print-ready file is saved against that basket item. It’s the exact file we print from, so once your order’s placed nobody’s waiting on anything. Don’t worry about the small “FatPrint preview” mark you see on screen: it only appears on previews, never on the real file. Once you’ve paid, a full-resolution PDF is attached to the order and you can grab it any time from My Account. Only after the file and not the print? The finished screen has an option for that. Spotted something later? Open the designer again, make the change, confirm once more. Final design checks goes deeper into the final check window.

Putting it up outside? Most small banners on your own premises are fine, but GOV.UK’s guide to outdoor advertisements and signs explains when you need consent. Stuck on wording or size? Send us a message and we’ll help you get the most out of the free banner designer.