Almost every flex order starts with the same exchange. The customer says "I need a banner", we ask what size, and there is a pause. Nobody thinks in square feet until they have to. Here is how to work it out in under a minute, and what each of the common sizes actually costs.
Flex is sold by the square foot, not by the banner
Multiply the width in feet by the height in feet. That number times the rate is your price. Star flex at 340gsm is ₹12 per square foot; heavy 440gsm is ₹18. Eyelets, hemming and rope are included, so the number you calculate is close to the number you pay.
| Size | Sq ft | 340gsm | 440gsm | Typically used for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3×2 ft | 6 | ₹72 | ₹108 | Counter signs, price boards |
| 6×3 ft | 18 | ₹216 | ₹324 | Stall banners, small events |
| 6×4 ft | 24 | ₹288 | ₹432 | Birthday backdrops, notices |
| 8×4 ft | 32 | ₹384 | ₹576 | Shop banners, meeting boards |
| 10×6 ft | 60 | ₹720 | ₹1,080 | Shopfront, function entrance |
| 12×8 ft | 96 | ₹1,152 | ₹1,728 | Stage backdrop |
| 20×10 ft | 200 | ₹2,400 | ₹3,600 | Hoarding, roadside display |
Working out the size for your own space
Measure the opening in feet. Take off about six inches on each side so the banner has somewhere to be tied and does not fight the frame. A twelve-foot shopfront takes an eleven-foot banner, not a twelve-foot one, we have re-cut enough banners that arrived to find they would not fit.
For height, there is a rule that has served well for decades: one inch of capital letter height for every ten feet of viewing distance. A banner read from across the main road, say sixty feet, needs six-inch letters. Work backwards from that and you will know how tall the banner has to be to carry the text you want. If the words will not fit at that letter size, cut the words, never the letter size.
Portrait or landscape
Landscape for anything read while walking or driving past, because the eye scans horizontally. Portrait for door frames, standees and pole banners, and for anywhere a landscape banner would simply not fit. Political and event standees are almost always 3×6 ft portrait for this reason.
The three size mistakes we see most
- Confusing feet and inches. "Six by four" has meant both 6ft×4ft and 6in×4in in the same week. We now confirm every size in writing before printing, and we would rather ask a slightly annoying question than print the wrong thing.
- Width first, always. An 8×4 is eight wide and four tall. A 4×8 is a tall narrow banner. They cost the same and look completely different.
- Buying too small for the height it will hang at. A banner that looks generous on the ground looks like a postcard at fifteen feet. If it is going high, go bigger than feels necessary.
When to pay for 440gsm
Anything outdoors, above roof height, or facing open wind. Near the coast this is not a preference, it is arithmetic: 440gsm with wind slits cut across the lower third costs about ₹6 more per square foot and lasts roughly three times as long. On a 60 sq ft shopfront banner that is ₹360 extra to avoid replacing it twice. Indoors, or for a one-day function, 340gsm is the right call and paying more is waste.
Sending artwork at the right size
Design at one-tenth scale at 300dpi, or full size at 30dpi, both give the same result at the press. What matters far more is the photographs you place in it. A picture pulled off WhatsApp has been compressed to about a tenth of its original size; printed at six feet it turns into visible squares. Send images as WhatsApp documents, or bring the phone and we will copy the originals.
Not sure? Send the measurements and the text on WhatsApp and we will tell you the size, the cost and what will fit before you commit to anything.