Smoothing Out Vinyl Banners: A Step-by-Step Guide

Vinyl banners are a great way to advertise your business or event, but they can become wrinkled and creased over time. Fortunately, there are several ways to smooth out vinyl banners without damaging them. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to do it.

Using a Hair Dryer: Make sure the dryer is set to a low or medium temperature to avoid any damage. Blow the hair dryer on the non-printed side of the banner to avoid damaging the print.

Gently Ironing: Place a warm, clean cloth on top of the sign, then iron the creases. Be sure to set the steam iron to a low temperature.

Sunlight: Before hanging an old indoor banner, smooth out any wrinkles by placing it in the sun. The heat will do wonders for this.

Wet Cloth: You can also use a warm wet cloth to smooth out wrinkles. However, once it gets wet, use an iron (medium heat) to steam iron stubborn creases and the custom banner will look like new once again.

Print Options

To get a smooth print surface, a soft clean, lint-free white cloth or some type of fabric can help transfer heat to the vinyl banner, but they help avoid any direct heat that may be too much for the type of print or vinyl banner itself.

Many custom sign suppliers will ship oversized vinyl banners folded to reduce size and shipping costs for the end customer. However, with care, it can be folded and stored properly to prevent creases on vinyl banners.

When in doubt, or when working with double-sided banner prints, use something between the heat source and the vinyl banner size to make sure you avoid permanent damage. Mesh vinyl burns easily and is less likely to spoil in sunlight than with a hair dryer or iron. You can even test it on a piece of fabric before making a corner of the vinyl banner as one more way to check that your heat setting is sufficient and no more. If you use an iron, you can set it to a low temperature and place a piece of soft cloth on the vinyl so that the hot iron does not touch the material directly.

If you use vinyl retractable banners or have a bunch of them stored in storage, they've probably been wrinkled a lot. The reason for this is that banner vinyl print is very sensitive to heat, especially when it is close to the material, and will cause damage if these methods are done incorrectly.

Whatever the reason, and in these cases, be sure to follow ALL of the above guidelines to avoid permanently damaging your vinyl banners, banner tape in any way. The first thing to keep in mind is that you need to make sure that neither the hair dryer nor the iron comes into direct contact with the vinyl material.