General

Dedicated customer parking lots are available on our premises.

We hand-picked and tested all our print materials prior to offering the products on the market. Printing is only done with original ink from equipment manufacturer despite a much higher cost than third party ink for wider colour gamut, best print quality and excellent durability at a minimum environmental cost.

We do not match price as price quote alone offers no insight to the quality of products (material, ink, workmanship etc) that another company is offering.

At Banner Express, we strive to provide the most professional service and quality product at a very affordable "wholesale price". Print quality is of utmost importance to us with majority of our customers who are graphic designers, print brokers, advertising agencies and brand owners. We hand-picked the best materials and all printing is only done using original ink from equipment manufacturer. This ensures the best colour durability and wider gamut on your prints, at the best possible price.

We leverage on bulk purchase of printing materials, employ a lean operation models and embrace the latest web and print technologies to keep the price as low as possible. We invest heavily in machineries to promote automation and this also allows most of the finishing processes to be done in house rather than contracting to a third party. 

Products

Small format products (flyers, brochures etc) are printed with dry toner whereas large format products (banners, signs etc) are printed with either eco-solvent ink or latex ink.

In general, gloss laminated print is usually more vivid and saturated in colours but glossy surface causes reflection that may obscure fine details in the prints. On the other hand, matt laminated print often holds minor details and texture better than the glossy counterpart with more muted colours, which is highly favourable for those seeking an artistic feel in the prints.

Dust free lamination is almost impossible, simply because we don't operate in a cleanroom environment so please expect there is occasional slight lamination imperfection. We hope for your understanding that our products are suitable for general promotional usage but not fine art grade.

Lamination reduces possibility of physical damage and colour fading through added layer of protection and the inclusion of UV inhibitor. There may be a slight colour cast on the final prints due to the UV inhibitors.

Matte stock has a slightly textured and uncoated surface so colours will appear more muted and grainy as compare to glossy stock. The texture on the surface also causes some white spots to be visible on the prints (especially for lighter colours). Please opt for glossy stock instead if you prefer a more saturated and solid finishing.

The following image illustrates the differences of the output when the same pantone colour (2705, 2715, 2725, 2735) is printed on coated (gloss / satin) and uncoated (matte) stock. Suffix C denotes coated stock and suffix U denotes uncoated stock.

Eyelet provides a reinforced hole so that user can stretch it on a display stand or tie it to a supporting structure whereas hemming strengthens the banner edge and provides a finished look to the end product. Eyelet and hemming are highly recommended for outdoor banner to improve durability under windy condition.

We highly recommend to perform the following steps periodically (weekly if possible) when caring for your vehicle / magnetic sign:-

  1. Remove magnetic sign from vehicle surface
  2. Clean the vehicle surface and ensure that the surface is dry
  3. Re-attach the magnetic sign

*Always remove the magnetic sign before car wash to ensure no chemicals are trapped in between the mounting surface and the magnet, as well as around the edges*

6 months limited warranty for manufacturer defect is provided for the footpath sign. Defects resulted from abuse, improper usage or environmental factor is not claimable. Do take note that the ACM panel is only supported at the bottom so it is natural for the sign panel to bend from external force (strong wind / mishandling etc) after prolonged usage.

Important notes:-

  1. DO NOT remove or insert the ACM panel repeatedly/routinely as this will cause the vinyl sticker to delaminate.
  2. DO NOT step or drive onto the base as this will result in water leakage

We recommend footpath sign for permanent usage at a stationary location. Sandwhich board/A-frame is a better option if mobility or frequent sign change is required.

Blackboard vinyl has a textured surface so please use it with chalk only. Liquid chalk / chalk pen works better on smooth surface so please go for the "printed vinyl" option as it is laminated with a layer of UV-resistant gloss film.

GSM (grams per square meter) is the paper weight which is relevant to the bulkiness. The other critical parameter that affects the bulkiness is the thickness of the paper (microns/um). For paper stock with the same GSM, the thicker the paper, the bulkier it is.

For example, on the business cards, our satin paper is much bulkier than the gloss paper despite the fact that both are 350gsm. This is due to Satin paper is much thicker at 379um as compare to the gloss paper at 337um.

Different colour components on the flag will fade at different speed, with Cyan and Magenta fading at a slightly accelerated speed than yellow and black.

Printed / dye-sublimated fabric does not has the same level of colour penetration into the fabric as yarn-dyed fabric which usually allows penetration into the core of fabric material. This is the main reason the printed fabric tends to fade much faster than yarn-dyed fabric and the difference is noticeable within 6 months of service life (depending on exposure angle and duration).

While all soft signages are weather resistance and suitable for outdoor usage, it is not produced for extreme weather conditions. Damages due to weather events or progressive material degradation is considered as reasonable wear and tear and will not be covered under the product warranty.

As soft signages tends to degrade at a much faster rate than the rigid sign (i.e. ACM), we would highly recommend replacing it every 6 months or so.

Short answer is NO since all printers are manufactured to operate within a set tolerance. For example, the estimated shrinkage for self adhesive vinyl on a latex printer is between 0-0.5% and banner is 0-2%. Some products requires manual trimming/finishing which can also cause slight variation in sizes.

It is highly recommended for size-critical job (such as window graphics), always print it slightly oversized and the excess can be trimmed off after installation is completed. This will ensure that there is no gap around the window edges.

Large format printed label has the added benefit of water/weather resistance but the print resolution is usually lower than laser printed label due to a larger "dot size". Large format ink also tends to bleed slightly into non-ink area so fine text may appear slightly fuzzy. As a general recommendation, please utilise larger text size (8pt and beyond) and avoid thin font for the standard and quick apply product labels for legibility purpose.

Artwork Preparation

RGB file has more exciting colours but printout varies largely according to the capability of various printing devices in handling the wide colour gamut. On the other hand, CMYK has a much narrower colour gamut and achievable across most of the common printing platforms. Therefore, design and print in CMYK ensure better colour consistency across different printing sources (offset, laser, large format etc).

A nice and solid black colour on the print starts from how an artwork is being designed. Using K=100 will turn up greyish on final print due to the low ink coverage. It is advisable to design the artwork using rich black which is C=60, M=40, Y=40, K=100 (240% ink coverage).

Automatic conversion of RGB colours into CMYK will occur prior to printing as this is required to bring all out of gamut colours into printable range.

Submiting an artwork designed in RGB indicates your consent for the colour conversion to take place. Please request for a copy of the soft proof if you have any concern on the effects of colour conversion.

The most common error is placing RGB elements (i.e. photos, logos from website) in a CMYK document. What happened during printing stage is the RGB elements will be converted into CMYK, resulting in the unexpected colour shift of the affected elements. The solution to this issue is by ensuring all design elements are in CMYK only and to perform CMYK conversion when necessary.

Printing and finishing machineries are not perfect so there is possibility of slight variations during the production process. Safe zone ensures that your important text or graphics will not be trimmed in case of a slight misaglinment. We recommend the safe zone to be 2.5mm, meaning to place critical text or graphics at a minimum distance of 2.5mm from the trimming edge.

We preferred Ai or PDF file generated from Illustrator for quality prints. Please ensure all fonts are outlined and transparencies flattened in your print-ready file.

You can perform the operation by selecting "Object" follows by "Flatten Transparency". Make sure you check the options, “Convert All text to Outlines” and “Convert All Strokes to Outlines”, and uncheck "Preserve Alpha Transparency" and "Preserve Overprints and Source Color" then select "OK" to perform the flattening and outlining operation. You can then proceed to save the file in PDF1.3 version.

Other file types such as high quality JPEG and flattened TIFF are also acceptable for printing.

Resolution for actual size should be at a minimum of 300ppi. If you scaled down the size to 1/10 ratio then the minimum resolution has to be 10 times larger than the requirement for actual size at 3000ppi.

The total cost displayed on our website only covers the printing cost and does not include any design service.

Unfortunately due to the huge number of orders that we are dealing with everyday, we are unable to take on any graphic design work unless for jobs that will be printed in house.

Overprinting feature can cause issues during printing if it is not being managed properly. "Simulate Overprinting" option must always be checked in Acrobat's output preview to ensure that the preview is consistent with what will be printed.

Please only supply artwork that you have vetted and approved. Our job as a printing company is to produce your artwork as accurate as possible. Proof reading/checking is the duty of the both the graphic designer and the artwork owner which does not form part of the product cost that we are charging. Artwork specification is available on the website and further information can be supplied if there is any doubt. There should not be any issue if the artwork has been supplied as required.

Our graphics team preflights / checks every single artwork for potential issue as much as we could (as a precaution) before printing on a pro-active basis. However, we may not be able to spot all the issues as there could be hundreds of design elements in a single artwork. We appreciate your understanding that Banner Express is not liable for any claim as long as the prints matches the supplied artwork. 

As a rule of thumb, we, as a printing company is responsible for producing prints that matches as close as possible to the submitted artwork. We would check if the artwork is being designed to the required size and specs for printing. We don't, however, check for artwork correctness, proof-read the contents and inspect the resolution of every single design elements - simply because proofing is the responsibility of the graphic designer, content creator and artwork owner.

Having said that, we try to check the artwork as much as we could (simply as a precaution but not an obligation) and would get in touch with the customer should we spotted an error. However, we can't be made responsible for the typo/graphics error if not spotted essentially because that is an artwork/design issue. 

We aim to turnaround your job in shortest time possible. As such, generally we do not supply a proof for customer supplied artwork before proceeding, unless specifically requested when the order was placed.

We will email a proof for confirmation only if there is a concern or amendment has been done to make the artwork print-ready. The turnaround time will be extended if the confirmation comes in after our daily cut off time of 2pm.

Do take note that proof is supplied on the basis for confirming if there is any layout issues and not a representation of the colour accuracy.

Ordering Online

All quoted price on the website is GST excluded. As a GST-registered business, we are obligated to charge an additional 15% GST which is payable to Inland Revenue.

Please note that GST is chargeable for all orders that are being picked up/delivered locally. GST is a legal requirement and we are unable to offer any GST-free price even for cash payment.

All our products are priced in New Zealand Dollar. All transactions are billed in New Zealand Dollar only.

Once you have registered for an user account, you can proceed to choose product you want with the option to either upload a print-ready file, customize from a template or design from scratch using our online designer (for selected products). You can then select the order quantity and other finishing options before proceeding to checkout or add to cart and continue shopping for other item.

Please upload a low res version when ordering online and indicate in the comment section that the high res version will be submitted separately. We highly recommend www.wetransfer.com for transfer of large file.

After you have read the Terms of Use, please check the box beside it to signify your acceptance and you will be able to add the product to cart or proceed to checkout page.

The preview/thumbnail photo is meant for a quick check if you have uploaded the correct file and not meant for file / colour accuracy assessment. Occasionally the preview may fail to show (artwork dependent) but feel free to request for a soft proof whenever in doubt.

Due to the size limit imposed by courier companies, certain items can only be shipped via oversized freight company. The additional charges varies (depending on locations) and will be advised separately through email once the order is received. You are welcome to email us to confirm the additional cost before placing the order.

We will preflight the artwork and inform you if any changes is required for a better print quality. Once the artwork is confirmed, we will proceed to print and perform the necessary finishing. You can check the status of the order progress after logging in to your account.

To receive discount on your bulk purchase, simply apply the respective coupon code on the checkout page.

You can find information of standard turnaround time under the product description section for each of the products. The standard turnaround time for most of our products is 24 hours (1 working day). Please note that our order processing cut-off time is 2pm and order submitted after 2pm will only be processed at the following working day.

Turnaround time for your print jobs only begins after the artwork is preflight and confirmed by our designer. If the submitted file is not print-ready then the print job will be on hold and turnaround time delayed.

If your artwork is blurry / pixelated but are happy for us to print it, please include a comment in your order so that we will proceed with the artwork as it is.

Under unforseen circumstances such as machine breakdown, we will inform you on the potential delay and are happy to refund if you would like to have the order cancelled.

No. Turnaround time begins when artwork is confirmed and ends when product is ready for pick up or delivery at our store.

It is the customer's responsibility to obtain consent from the owner for any copyrighted content that is supplied to Banner Express. Banner Express will not print any offensive materials, amended legal documents, certificates and notes (money).

The order records will be kept for a maximum period of 36 months but the artwork file will be deleted every 6 months. Banner Express manages a huge amount of data / files and the only way for us to keep the storage cost down is by removing old data periodically (every 6 month).

Colour Management

YES. There are many factors affecting difference between the print and what you see on the screen but monitor calibration is the most crucial step in getting the right colours, and colours right.

Soft-proofing is an approximation to how the colours will look like in the final prints. However, the accuracy of softproofing varies largely depending on calibration, ambient lighting, software and many more.

Monitor has a much wider colour gamut than what printing process is capable of producing. When printer encounters colour that is out of the printable gamut, a rendering algorithm will be applied to determine the best alternative colour to represent the out of gamut colour.

We follow a specific colour management workflow in our design and production processes and all our equipment are calibrated and profiled regularly with the latest spectrophotometer to maintain colour consistency.

We are unable to print according to the colour on your screen as each of the screen (monitor, laptop, phone etc) varies depending on the manufacturer's default settings and monitor specifications.

Colour matching is only possible for artwork provided in vector format, designed in PMS colours. We will also require the pantone code or a hardcopy for colour matching purpose. It will take 1 additional working day for production if colour matching is required. Colour matching up to 2 PMS colours are free of charge and additional colours will be chargeable.

Please take note that in the event that colour matching has not been requested or the artwork is not designed as required then it will be printed as it is (without any adjustment). Any complaint with regards to colour discrepancies or request for a refund / reprint will not be entertained.

Our printers are calibrated periodically with spectrophotometer to ensure that we are printing colours as accurate as possible.

We utilise ISO Coated V2 as our target profile on the sheet fed press so we highly recommend designing your artwork in Fogra39 colour space to ensure colour consistency. Routine validation of machine performance is conducted on our sheet fed press according to ISO 12647-7 standard to ensure that the inherent colour variation meets industry best practice.  

The colours that can be achieved on the printing system is limited to the colour gamut that the printing system is capable of producing. Further fine tuning of the colours can be done manually to ensure that we print it as close as possible to the required PMS colour. It is important to take note that we cannot guarantee a 100% match, especially for saturated colour such as PMS 485C (red) and PMS 021C (orange). 

Unfortunately we are unable to guarantee 100% colour matching accuracy because different printers will have a unique set of inks/toners and materials that it work with so the colour may appear slightly different. Printed colours are also affected by the colour gamut that a machine is capable of printing or what is achievable on a certain type of material.

Digital press are more sensitive to temperature/humidity changes so there may be a very slight colour shift due to the change in the environment conditions. Slight colour shift is usually more noticeable in lighter colours than darker colours. Example, a slight increase in Magenta's saturation due to a change in printer's temperature may not be very noticeable in CMYK colour of 75/50/50/75 but it is more significant when we are dealing with 10/10/10/10.

Despite routine calibration, there may be slight colour difference when the same design is printed across various products due to different combination of printer, ink and material used. To ensure better colour consistency across different products, always design your brand colours in Pantone PMS and request for it to be colour matched when the print job is submitted.

Colour matching for the first 2 Pantone colours is free of charge and any additional colour to be matched is chargeable at $5+gst per product. This is to factor in the considerable material wastage and time taken to colour match.

Note: The printing system does not allow colour matching if Pantone colour is not being used. You may have to approach a graphic designer for assistance if your design software does not include the ability to apply a Pantone colour.

Delivery

The maximum dimension for courier company is usually 1.8m for metro area and 1.5m for rural address.

Unfortunately we are unable to deliver to a P.O.Box Address so please provide us with your physical address instead.

*To ensure that we don't miss your critical deadline, we will proceed with the job while waiting for a physical address to be provided. Please note that we are unable to cancel the order if the job has already been printed*

Auckland Metro and Greater Auckland Area (NZD$8 per parcel)

  • Up to 10kg (0.06m3) per parcel

North Island (NZD$12 per parcel)

  • Up to 10kg (0.06m3) per parcel

South Island (NZD$20 per parcel)

  • Up to 10kg (0.06m3) per parcel

Rural / Non metro address (additional NZD$8 per parcel)

  • Up to 10kg (0.06m3) per parcel

 

If you are unsure of which delivery zone your address belongs to, you can email us the delivery address and we will confirm the zoning with courier service provider. You can also check the delivery zoning using at https://www.nzcouriers.co.nz/checkit/.

Unfortunately in some cases, rural delivery fee is still chargeable for a non-RD address because the address is classified as a non metro location by the courier company. The courier company do not provide delivery service directly in non metro zone and it has to be done through their rural contractor which incur additional fee.

Our aim is to get the order to our customers as early as possible. Please check with us prior to placing the order because your order may have already been shipped earlier than expected if we manage to complete the job ahead of time. 

Banner Express partners reputable courier companies to provide New Zealand wide delivery. Currently, the delivery target is 1-2 working days for North Island and 2-3 working days for South Island. An additional 3-4 working days are required for rural address. Please note that there could be occasional delay for delivery of oversized item that is more than 1.5m.

*Delivery lead time is advised according to the information provided by courier company and Banner Express shall not be held responsible for any delay during delivery. Please provide allowance when arranging for courier, especially when ordering oversized item or during festive season*

Track and trace is included in the delivery charges. You will be provided with the tracking number once the parcel is dispatched. 

We are able to advise the package dimension and weight if you are arranging your own courier company to pick up the order. Packing/handling charge will incurred as the items have to be adequately packed for shipping purpose. Paper wrapping for the items is free if you do not require further protective packaging.

Please call our toll free number as soon as possible so that we can lodge an enquiry with the courier company. The courier company will take a few days to trace the parcel and upon confirmation that the parcel is loss during transit, we will arrange for a full refund or have the order re-printed and re-delivered. 

Courier companies no longer require a signature for delivery to residential address due to covid-19. Please contact the courier company immediately if you could not locate the parcel at the delivery address while the tracking result shows that it has been delivered.

Parcel theft is not uncommon and we highly recommend to retrieve the parcel as soon as you can once the parcel has been delivered.

It is important to note that courier company is not liable for any claim once you have given the authority to leave. They can, however, retrieve the delivery record to ensure that the parcel was delivered to the correct address.

The courier company will redeliver if it was sent to an incorrect address but there will be no further recourse in the event that the parcel was delivered to the correct address.

You should always check the item before signing for the parcel. It is unlikely the courier company will accept any claim once you have sign and confirmed that the parcel "is delivered in good condition", only to realised at a later stage that the item is damaged.

If the driver is in a hurry and insisted to have your signature before checking, please indicate that the parcel was received but not checked when you sign for it. You will have better odds of making a successful claim at a later stage.

Do not sign acceptance of the parcel if you suspect that the content is damaged. It is unlikely that the courier company will accept a damage claim if you have signed for it.

Request the driver to bring the parcel back for assessment. Please contact us immediately with photo of your item and packaging and we will lodge a claim with the courier company. A refund / replacement will be done once the claim is accepted and the process usually takes a few working days.

Please note that a claim against the courier company is not possible if you have given the "authority to leave".

Please inform us within 7 days after upon parcel delivery and kindly supply photo evidence to speed up the claim process. Courier company will then require the damaged parcel (in original packaging) to be picked up for their assessment.

We highly encourage our customers to place their order as early as possible to avoid potential delivery issue. New Zealand's courier companies are generally very reliable and the incident rate is very low but that does not mean it is impossible for things to happen.

If you insist on a reprint before the claim is accepted by courier company, we can only proceed with your consent that you are responsible for the reprint cost in the event if the parcel is found after the courier company's depot search or the damage claim is rejected.

  • For damaged parcel, the claim period is within 7 days after the delivery of goods.
  • For missing parcel (dispatched but not delivered), the claim period is within 14 days after the goods is dispatched.
  • For parcel that is shown to be delivered but cannot be located, please inform us within 24 hours

Please track the parcel delivery status once it is dispatched. Delivery is contactless due to covid-19 and parcel theft is not uncommon. Retrieve the parcel as soon as you can once the parcel has been delivered.

*Failure to report the incident within the claim period will result in the claim being rejected by the courier company. Unfortunately this also means that we are unable to offer a replacement for the damaged / missing goods*

Refund Policy

If you notify us the day before the supposed courier date, a full refund of the courier fee will be provided.

If you notify us on the day when we are supposed to courier your order, any refund will depends on the status of your order. We will have to deduct the packing fee from the courier charges if your item has been packed. This is to offset the charges for the considerable effort and material are used during packing to ensure that your item will arrive safely to you.

Our standard packing fee schedule is as follows:

  • Small format product (business cards, flyers, brochures etc): $3+gst per pack
  • Large format product (banners, posters, signs etc) : $5+gst per pack
  • Oversized product : $12+gst per pack

Please review the proof carefully for complete accuracy. Banner Express will not accept responsibility for typographical errors, errors in spelling, grammar, punctuation, graphics, fonts or content once the proof is approved by the customer (written or verbal inclusive). The exception is when the error is made during printing stage and the output does not match the proof authorised by the customer, in which Banner Express will bear the full reprinting cost.

We are happy to offer a refund if the order was not dispatched on the promised date which resulted in late delivery. However, we won't be able to offer a refund if the late delivery is resulted from delivery process.

While generally the courier companies are pretty good in getting the orders delivered within the recommended lead time, there is occasional delay from unforseen circumstances such as weather event. It is not possible for the courier company to offer a 100% on time delivery guarantee.

We highly recommend our customers to place their order as early as possible and once the order is dispatched, it is crucial to keep track of the parcel status. This will leave more room for recovery process to take place in case of delivery issue.

Due to the nature of our product, we are unable to provide a refund once the order has been processed.