Sign-Ups is a full service sign, banner, marketing and promotional products company. In the sign business since 1990, it has its own production facility in central Houston. Products include signs, banners, lettering services, site maps, floor graphics, decals and labels, vehicle wraps and much more. The Sign-Ups team prides itself on its dedication to customer service and quality products.
Frequently Asked Questions about signs, banners, and more.
The turn-around time depends on the order. For an average job, the turn-around time is 1-2 business days, but it all depends on size, quantity, availability, etc. We always try to meet any of your deadline requests.
Our plotter cuts shapes, graphics and text from rolls of adhesive vinyl, which is a self-colored, adhesive-backed, vinyl film that has a removable paper backing material.
Vector art is composed strictly of geometrical primitives such as points, lines, curves and polygons to represent images. It can be reduced or enlarged without any loss of resolution and is the only type of art that can be used with a vinyl plotter or vinyl banner printing. Vector is the preferred type of art for most jobs.
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Raster images are representations of graphics through points of color, called pixels. These images are usually printed as 4-color process prints and cannot be cut out of vinyl without re-designing or tracing the image on vector-based software.
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Adobe Illustrator, Freehand and Corel Draw are some of the most used vector-based software. Adobe Photoshop can export paths and some other raster-based programs may also have that ability. Vector files extensions are usually EPS, PDF or AI.
Vector files are mainly used for vinyl cutting, but vector is always the best choice when designing. It is usually easy to change and will keep its resolution at any size, since it is based on shapes and lines rather than points of color. Keep in mind that certain effects are often based on resolution, even when designing in vector, and may lose resolution when enlarged. Vector images are usually easier and quicker to modify. Raster images should be used for photographic material. It is possible to have a mixed file, designed in vector (text) with some elements in raster (photos). When saving the file, vector graphics can be saved as vector or raster art, but raster graphics can only be saved as raster. Vector is always preferable to raster for its higher flexibility when it comes to changing information or resizing the art.
Vector art is always preferred for its smaller size and higher flexibility. EPS, PDF and AI are the most common formats. For 4-color process prints, a high resolution raster file such as TIF, JPG or BMP will do. (Recommended resolution is 100 – 150 dpi at final size). All text should be converted to curves / outlines and any pictures used in the artwork should be embedded in the file and not just linked to it. If you can’t convert the text to curves / outlines or embed the pictures, you will need to send us the font files and any pictures used in the job along with your file. Once text is converted to curves, they are no longer editable, so make sure you keep an original back-up in case any information needs to be changed in the future.
Web images are often produced for speed, not quality. Web designers reduce picture resolution so websites will load quickly. Pictures found in websites are generally low-resolution raster files that will not produce acceptable graphics when enlarged for print. Unless the web graphics are large high-resolution files, they will not produce good results.
Vector is the preferred format. Raster files work great if the art will be printed in 4-color process (75-150 dpi at final size). When designing in Vector, ensure that all text is converted to outlines and any pictures used in the artwork are embedded in the file and not just linked to it. Please call us at (713) 682-7979 if you have any questions, and one of our knowledgeable staff members will help you with your artwork.
Yes! If you are ordering a vinyl lettered banner or sign with graphics, we require a vector format file. We will be printing your logo on the banner/sign and can use almost any high quality logo artwork.
We can make banners to almost any size that you need. The best way is to determine how far away your viewing audience will be and make sure the lettering is large enough for reading. (See distance & sizing chart.)