Signage & large format · Chicago since 1927
A custom banner is a large printed piece — vinyl, mesh, fabric, or paper — made to standard or custom size and hung at an event, a storefront, or a job site. United GMG prints custom banners at its Mount Prospect plant for teams across Chicagoland and nationwide, and every one is planned back from the date it has to be up.
Below: the materials matched to indoor and outdoor use, how a banner actually goes up — hems, grommets, poles, and frames — the standard sizes drawn to scale, and what to send for a quote. Your crew brings the ladder; the printing is ours.
Two of ours, on the job.
Indoor & outdoor banners for a variety of applications
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Vinyl banner printing covers most jobs — but not all of them. Outdoors, 13 oz and 18-ounce vinyl do the heavy work and mesh lets the wind through; indoors, the choice opens up — fabric, canvas, cloth, and paper all hang out of the weather. Four cards below, each picked by how it hangs: through grommets, on a pole, with tape, or on its own frame.
Water- and fade-resistant, indoors or out: storefronts, fences, gyms, job sites. For long outdoor stays, step up to 18-ounce heavy-duty — the most durable choice; for windy fence lines, mesh vinyl lets the wind pass through.
"Are we able to swap out the banners and use the same stands for future shows? 13oz should be sufficient for our needs" — a marketing team, planning future shows
Hangs by: rope or zip ties through the corner grommets Quote this one →A sewn sleeve instead of rings: the banner slides onto a pole and hangs from it — over a walkway, between posts, off a building face. From a real order: "We are needing the 9ft pole and quantity is 2".
Hangs by: its own pockets — top, bottom, or both Quote this one →Paper banner printing runs on wide poster stock for halls, gyms, and one-day announcements. Light enough to go up fast and come down clean — built for a shorter life than vinyl. Say how long it needs to be up when you ask for the quote.
Hangs by: tape, tacks, or clips — indoors Quote this one →A folding frame with a printed face — the backdrop style many event teams call a pop up banner. If you mean the banner that pulls up out of its own base, that's a retractable — covered just below.
Hangs by: nothing — the frame stands on its own Quote this one →Also in large format — all printed at the same plant; pick one to see its page.
Hanging a set for a show? Send the date →
Tell us the event date and the job counts backward from it — files in, proof approved, banners finished, your hang day before the doors open. The date is the one thing only you know.
Every row counts back from your event date — set the date and the schedule sets itself.
| Milestonein order | What's doneby whom | Duebefore your event |
|---|---|---|
| 1 · Files in | Print-ready artwork handed off — yours | — |
| 2 · Proof approved | You sign off before anything runs — yours + ours | — |
| 3 · Banners finished | Hemmed, grommeted, packed and ready — ours | — |
| 4 · Hang day | Your crew puts it up | You set this one |
The dates for these rows come with your quote — send the event date and the schedule comes back with a date on every row. One schedule, counted from your date.
Most banners hang by their edges — and the edges are built at the plant, not at the wall. Watch one 13 oz vinyl banner get ready for its wall, step by step:
Every edge folds back and sews down. A hem keeps the banner from fraying and gives the corners enough body to be gripped and pulled tight.
Metal rings set into the corners — the holes that rope, zip ties, or hooks pass through.
Your crew threads the corners and pulls the face flat. One customer drew the line for us: "The installers will supply the ropes and weights." The printing is ours; the hanging is yours.
A hemmed, grommeted banner pulls flat and stays flat — readable from across a hall or a street. That's the whole job.
The standing spec, straight from real orders: Hemmed all sides & 4 corner grommets. For what the rings are and when to ask for pole pockets instead, see our guide to what grommets on a banner do.
Standard banners run from 2 × 8 ft up to 5 × 20 ft — two, three, or five feet tall, in lengths from eight to twenty feet. A 3 × 9 ft face suits most storefronts and event walls; the bigger faces read from farther away. Custom sizes run too.
Drawn to relative scale — the figure is 5 ft 9 in. A 5 × 20 ft banner is wider than three people are tall.
Twelve stock banner sizes, grouped by height. Lengths are in feet.
| 2 ft tallwalkways · railings | 3 ft tallstorefronts · walls | 5 ft tallfences · buildings |
|---|---|---|
| 2 × 8 ft | 3 × 9 ft | 5 × 10 ft |
| 2 × 12 ft | 3 × 12 ft | 5 × 12 ft |
| 2 × 16 ft | 3 × 16 ft | 5 × 16 ft |
| 2 × 20 ft | 3 × 20 ft | 5 × 20 ft |
Need a size that isn't on the chart? Send the wall measurements and where people will stand, and we'll size it with you.
One inch of letter height for every 10 feet of reading distance — the sign industry's rule of thumb. Size the main message by the farthest reader you care about, and let the details run smaller.
Drawn to relative scale — the farther your reader stands, the taller the letters need to be.
Readable from 10, 20, 50, or 100 feet — that's 1", 2", 5", and 10" letters by the same rule.
| Letter height | Reads comfortably at | Still legible out to |
|---|---|---|
| 1" | 10 ft | 50 ft |
| 2" | 20 ft | 75 ft |
| 3" | 30 ft | 100 ft |
| 6" | 60 ft | 200 ft |
| 12" | 120 ft | 525 ft |
| 24" | 240 ft | 1,000 ft |
Two more rules that matter at distance: plain, unserifed lettering stays readable farther than decorative or serifed faces, and dark-on-light contrast beats subtle color pairings. Put the one line you need read from the street in the biggest size, and keep dates and details for the reader who has already walked closer.
A custom banner is quoted by the job: the size, the material, the finishing — grommets or pole pockets — the sides printed, and how many you need. Bigger faces and heavier vinyl move the number up; quantity moves the per-banner number down. Send those with the event date and the quote comes back itemized.
Baseline shown: 13 oz vinyl with hemmed edges. Mesh, 18 oz heavy-duty, fabric, and paper move the number.
A banner is quoted by the job — size and quantity drive it.
| Standard size13 oz vinyl | Hemmed + 4 corner grommetsas low as | With pole pocketsas low as |
|---|---|---|
| 2 × 8 ft | $35 | $35 |
| 3 × 12 ft | $78 | $78 |
| 5 × 10 ft | $108 | $108 |
As-low-as is the floor for the standard spec — finishing is the same price either way. Your exact figure comes back itemized: send the size, the material, the quantity, and the event date. One quote, in real figures.
Banner work here runs in sets: event and conference teams dressing a venue, agencies ordering wholesale for clients, property managers covering buildings and sites, marketing teams that reorder for every show — same stands, new faces, files kept so the next run matches the last.
A fair boundary: a single banner for a Saturday afternoon is an online sign store's job, and they'll do it well. Where this plant earns its keep is the set and the schedule — the event calendar, the property portfolio, the reorder that has to match the last run.
Banners for Chicago events and sites print here alongside the plant's commercial print and direct mail work, and finished banners ship wherever the job needs to land — see our printing services in Chicago. You approve a proof before anything runs, and if you're nearby, you're welcome to see the plant.
Quick answers
Announcing and marketing at building scale: a sale across a storefront, a sponsor wall at a fundraiser, wayfinding at a conference, a milestone across the shop floor, a leasing message on a fence. Any place a message has to be read from a distance, a banner is usually the simplest way to put it there.
Indoor banners hang inside windows, over entryways, from ceilings and railings. Out of the weather, the material choice opens up: fabric, canvas, and cloth all work indoors, and vinyl runs indoors too, so one banner can serve both settings.
Outdoor banners are built for weather — you've seen them on construction fences and building faces. Vinyl is the standard: water-resistant and fade-resistant. For long outdoor stays, 18-ounce heavy-duty vinyl is the most durable choice, and mesh vinyl lets wind pass through the face, which is why it goes on fences and open-air sites.
Big, bold, readable type — then stop adding. A banner is read from a distance, so the fewer words the better; high-resolution artwork keeps edges crisp at full size. Keep the message to one idea, and you approve a proof before anything prints.
Yes. The standard chart covers most walls, but banners cut to custom sizes run too — send the wall measurements and where people will stand, and the size gets worked out with you before the quote.
Yes — hemmed vinyl banners roll up and come back out for the next show, and stands and hardware stay in service while the faces change. Store them rolled rather than folded and they keep their shape between events.
Vinyl is water- and fade-resistant and should last for years — indoors, longer still. What shortens a banner's life is sun and wind exposure, which is exactly what mesh and 18-ounce heavy-duty vinyl are for. If a banner has to survive several seasons outside, say so at quote time and it gets built for that.
Print it here. Hang it anywhere.
United GMGTell us the event — get a quote
Send the event date, the size or the wall, rough quantity, and whether it hangs by grommets or pole pockets. The estimate comes back in real figures.
