Textile banners with better lightfastness

Last summer 2018 was very sunny in Scandinavia and it was easily seen as faded colors in outdoor banners. It might be that the last summer was just an exception. However, pessimistic approach is that the next summer will be just as sunny as the last one.

How good is the light fastness of textile banners in general and is there any way to improve it ?

Light fastness of textile product depends on

- amount of light that is place and how long time the product will be held there. If a banner is made to be used for some months only then there is not much problem with the light fastness. On the other hand, there might be a huge difference with southside sunny places compared to more shadow places.

- light fastness properties of dye or pigment. There are big differences on light fastness in different dye and pigment classes and some differences in shaeds too.

For measuring the lightfastness of textiles the scale 1 to 8 is used. Value 8 means that the shade is not fading at all in prolonged light. Textiles that has values under 4 are not normally good for prolonged outdoor use. Please note that sublimation dyes - these are largely used in polyester dyeing and digital printing ie. so called low-energy or short-chain disperse dyes - have rather limited light fastness. Black and cyan have generally lower lightfastness than magenta and yellow that creates red cast in photographs outdoors. On the contrary, some selected long-chain disperse dyes have excellent light fastness on polyester fabrics. These dyes can be used in screen printed flags and banners.

Pigments has the best lightfastness, there is huge difference in lightfastness of cyan ink compared to sublimation. Pigments have been largely used in screen printing of textiles but the are now available in digital printing as well.

Printscorpio has experience on making cotton banners for decades. Cotton banners are great choice at sunny wall and fence. We suggest lightwight polyester in open windy places.

For highest lightfastness the best choice are:

- digital or screen pigment printed cotton banners

- digital or screen pigment printed polyester banners

- screen printed banners made on non-woven fabric

- screen printed polyester banners

With modern screen printing technology the short runs are possible as well. Please contact our sales.