On this page 7 sections
Good roller banner design is aimed at someone strolling past a few metres away who gives it about three seconds. Logo and a punchy headline up high, three to five brief lines in total, and plain background across the lowest 150 to 200 mm, since the cassette can swallow that strip. Build the page at the real size, such as 850 × 2000 mm, keep photos between 100 and 150 dpi at that size, and send us a PDF. Below: why each of those matters, then the setup in order.
Haven’t picked a width or stand yet? Start with our roller banner buying guide. This page is for when the size is settled and you want the artwork to pull its weight.
The three-second test #
Picture your stand at the end of an exhibition aisle, next to a reception desk or just inside a shop door. Almost everyone who sees it is on the move. In one glance they’ll catch a name, a handful of words and perhaps a picture. That’s the brief. Anything that needs proper reading belongs on a leaflet on the table.
So when roller banner design goes wrong, it’s rarely the colours or the typeface. It’s the word count. Aim for a headline of three to six words, a few short points and one way to reach you. Stop there.
Where everything sits, top to bottom #
These stands are tall, slim and seen from standing height. Split yours into four bands:
| Band | Put here | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Upper 500 mm | Logo plus headline | Close to an adult’s eye line, and still in view above tables, chairs and heads |
| Centre | What you’re offering: a few short points, or a single strong photo | If the top did its job, people slow down here |
| Below the centre | Website, number or QR code | Around waist height, where a phone camera points naturally |
| Lowest 150 to 200 mm | Just background | The cassette, or the lip of a table, often covers it |
Let the background carry on into that lowest strip so it doesn’t look chopped, but keep words, logos and QR codes clear of it. Leave 30 to 40 mm free down each long side too. The print runs close to the side caps of the stand, and lettering squeezed against the edge looks cramped once you step back.
Page size and photo pixels #
Make the document exactly the width and height you’re ordering, in millimetres, portrait. A landscape layout squashed onto a tall stand never sits right, so start tall and stay tall.
Our artwork guidelines want 100 to 150 dpi at full size for photos. If one photo covers the entire graphic, the 100 dpi floor works out at about:
- 800 × 2000 mm: 3150 × 7874 pixels
- 850 × 2000 mm: 3346 × 7874 pixels
- 1000 × 2000 mm: 3937 × 7874 pixels
For 150 dpi, times those by 1.5. A photo covering only part of the stand needs proportionally fewer: fill a quarter of the height and you need a quarter of the vertical pixels. Keep the logo and lettering as vectors, meaning outlined shapes and real fonts, and they’ll stay crisp two metres up. Our page on image resolution for print has the sums.
Lettering that carries across a room #
A useful benchmark: headline capitals around 80 to 100 mm tall can be read with ease from the far side of an aisle, and no capital anywhere should drop much below 20 mm. Also:
- Two typefaces at most. Something heavy for the headline, a clean sans serif everywhere else.
- Big contrast between words and background. The W3C page on minimum contrast was written with screens in mind, yet the same logic applies on a printed stand.
- Busy photo behind your words? Shift them, or sit them on a solid block of colour.
- Line lists up on the left. Centred lines of uneven length are slower to scan.
Setting up your roller banner design, step by step #
Have ready: the logo (PDF, SVG, AI or EPS if you can get it), full-size photos, the final wording, and any program that saves PDFs.
- Make the page. Portrait, at the true size you’re buying, say 850 × 2000 mm. Choose CMYK colour mode if the program offers it.
- Draw the guides. Mark 30 to 40 mm inside both long edges, a line 500 mm below the top, and another 200 mm above the bottom. Under that last line: background, nothing else.
- Fill the background. Stretch colours and photos to every edge so trimming leaves no white hairline.
- Put the logo up high. In the top band, large enough to spot across a hall, with breathing room between it and the top rail.
- Write the headline, then the points. Headline first and biggest. Underneath, a maximum of five brief supporting lines.
- Add one contact line at waist height. Pick the single web address or number you most want used, rather than listing every account you run.
- Shrink it on screen. Zoom right out until the whole stand is roughly hand-sized on your monitor. If the headline is a blur now, it’ll be a blur at five paces.
- Check every detail twice. Go through spellings, numbers and addresses one character at a time. Whatever you send is what gets printed.
- Export and upload a PDF. A single page at the true size, fonts embedded or outlined, images untouched. Choose your own artwork on the product page; a person then looks over size, resolution and edges at full scale before printing starts.
No design software? Use the online designer #
Every stand size can be designed in our online designer, opened from its product page. Designing and previewing cost nothing, and the small watermark on the preview never appears on the print. The canvas is already the correct size, a 5 mm bleed is added automatically, and the section that disappears into the cassette is shaded so you know to keep it empty. Built-in checks stop you finishing with placeholder text, and flag lettering that’s too small for distance, soft photos and anything drifting outside the safe zone.
Confirming there means confirming exactly what’s on the screen, so take your time over a final read. Once paid, the print PDF is attached to the order; if the file is all you’re after, you can buy it without the print.
Would you rather someone else handled the roller banner design? Our paid artwork service will lay out your text and logo neatly, or create a design from your brief, and it includes 1 design and 2 rounds of changes.
Four mistakes worth avoiding #
- Starting on an A4 page and enlarging. The shape is wrong and small type becomes illegible.
- A phone number along the lowest edge, exactly where the cassette or a tabletop hides it.
- A logo lifted from your website. At two metres high it goes fuzzy, so ask your designer for the master file.
- Dark lettering on a dark photo, worst of all on blockout roller banners placed against windows, where the light behind leaves the graphic in shade.
Once it’s delivered, our page on putting up a roller banner shows how to open it out and roll it back without creasing the print. Worried your wording won’t fit? Send it, plus your logo, via the contact form and we’ll give you an honest answer.