Translucent Adhesive Vinyl

These instructions are provided for our customers that want to install their own adhesive vinyl sign graphics. Tools you will need: Scissors, Xacto knife or razor blade, soft squeegee or paper to protect the image (hard squeegee will damage the print), and masking tape.

General Notes

• If applying a vinyl graphic that is not laminated, use a soft squeegee or protect the image with paper during installation to prevent damage to the printed image.
• Apply vinyl in the shade (no direct sunlight).
• The ideal temperature would be between 46-80 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Wind or wind gusts will cause problems.

Surface Preparation

• All surfaces should be considered dirty and must be cleaned prior to installation. Clean the area where the graphics are to be applied with a household, non-ammonia based cleaner. We recommend an alcohol based cleaner such as denatured alcohol or equivalent. Rinse thoroughly and dry.
• Air and surface temperatures must be above 46 degrees

Applying the Adhesive Vinyl

• Position your graphic in the desired location and tack into place on each end with small pieces of masking tape.
• Peel back about 2” of the release liner away from the top edge on the adhesive side of your graphic.
• Cut that section of the release liner off and discard.
• Squeegee down the exposed edge of the graphic starting from the center and working towards the edges. Let the squeegee cause the contact with the mounting surface and brush from the center outward using overlapping 45 degree angled strokes.
• Flip the graphic up, or have an assistant hold it up and start to peel back the remaining release liner.
• Pull back a few inches of the release liner at a time and squeegee the graphic into place using the same technique as above.
• If you get an air bubble, you can either lift the decal enough to release the air, or if the bubbles are not too large, you can pop them with a pin and squeegee the bubble toward the pin hole to squeeze out the air.
• Once the entire decal is applied, squeegee the entire decal once more to ensure a firm bond with the surface.

I just received my print and it's too dark and the color is wrong.

Backlit prints are profiled so the color looks correct when the graphic is illuminated, so you need to backlight the graphic for the color to look correct. See the question below for more details on this, but other than Day/Night backlit graphics, colors will always look too dark when the graphic isn't llluminated with a standard amount of lighting and often some colors will shift as well. If the graphics are printed so they look correct without lighting, they will look washed out when lit. Choose the Day/Night Backlit Graphic for displays that look good whether or not they are illuminated.

Why are graphics in my backlit display washed out/too dark?

There are two reasons one of these things can happen. One if the fault of the printing company, and one is the fault of the display. Many companies are not able or willing to create color profiles for any of their printing materials. Instead they use profiles that are supplied with the printer, choosing a profile that sounds the closest to what they are actually printing on and hoping for the best. This doesn't work particularly well, but it's possible to sneak by most customers who aren't very demanding with this type of technique. With backlit graphics, this doesn't work well at all, and is the main reason for backlit graphics to be washed out or too dark, and will also cause the colors to be off as well. We create color profiles for all our medias, including our backlit materials, so we can get accurate color from every one of them.

Backlit graphics do have an extra degree of difficulty because not all light boxes produce the same amount, or same color of illumination. When we create our color profiles, we assume the industry standard for illumination. If you're display puts out more light than is standard, it can make your graphics look too light, and if your display is too dim, the graphics will look dark. Also, lamps come in many different color temperatures so if your lamps are warmer or cooler than the standard 5000k temperature, your graphics will look warmer or cooler as well. We can compensate for these variances if you have a situation where color accuracy is critical, but it can involve some back and forth with color correction and proofs to get the color adjusted for a particular display, so it's obviously not recommend if precise color in a specific lightbox isn't needed.