The complete guide to banner sizes in Australia
The five sizes that cover almost every job, the one rule that picks yours, and the resolution trap that ruins banners.
Banners are the most-ordered print product in Australia — and the most commonly ordered wrong. Too small and nobody reads it from the road; oversized and you're paying for vinyl nobody sees. This is the size guide we hand customers at the counter, with the one rule that picks the size for you.
The five sizes that cover 95% of jobs
| Size | What it is | Where it works |
|---|---|---|
| 850 × 2000 mm | Pull-up banner — the expo standard | Trade shows, reception areas, shopfronts. Freestanding in 10 seconds. |
| 600 × 900 mm (per face) | A-frame sandwich board | Footpaths, cafe and salon doors — the classic "stop and look" size. |
| A1 — 594 × 841 mm | Large-format poster | Indoors: window displays, noticeboards, gym and clinic walls. |
| A0 — 841 × 1189 mm | The biggest "poster" | Shop walls, events, sale announcements. Still portable. |
| 3 × 1 m (and 2 × 1 m) | Standard vinyl banner | Fences, walls, shopfronts, openings — the road-visible workhorse. |
For site fencing and long runs, mesh banners come in 1.8 m rolls cut to length — wind passes through instead of turning your banner into a sail.
The one rule: the viewing-distance test
- Where will people stand? Count the metres from your banner to the furthest eyes you care about.
- Rule of thumb: letter height of roughly 1 cm per metre of viewing distance. Readable from 20 m? Your main message needs ~20 cm lettering.
- The 5-word test. A banner carries a headline (5–7 words), one image or logo, and one action — phone, QR or web address. Everything else is noise.
- Free check: we print banners every day — send us the artwork and where it's going, and we'll tell you honestly if the size and type are right.
Vinyl, mesh or fabric — one line each
The default. Tough, cheap, weatherproof, gloss or matte. Indoors and out.
Perforated so wind blows through. Site fences, scaffolding, long exposed runs.
Premium indoor look and lightboxes — trade-show booths and retail. No outdoor longevity.
Before you order — the resolution trap
A banner is judged at full size, not screen size: artwork needs 300 DPI at the final printed size, CMYK, with 5mm bleed for large-format. Not sure? Read our print-ready file guide — or send the file and our preflight check is free, as always. (See banners & pull-ups in the shop →)
Need a banner this week?
Pull-ups and vinyl banners are our fastest turnaround category — send the artwork or let us build it, free.