Curtain side trailers are perfect for displaying graphics including bold colorful company logos and informational messages. Applied to the retractable curtain, silk-screen or digital graphics can turn a truck body or full-size trailer into a billboard to promote products and services before the eyes of millions of drivers and pedestrians. The process of creating artwork for silk-screen or digital printing of curtainsides is well-established and straightforward and results are durable and long-lasting even under harsh road conditions.
First, The Design
You want an aesthetic, eye-catching color scheme and artwork to convey your brand in the short few seconds it will be glimpsed on the road. Unless you’re an experienced artist, or have one on your staff, this is probably not a DIY or in-house job. Consult with a qualified graphics artist or marketing firm to work up the most effective design for your trailer. There are now marketing design firms that specialize in creating artwork for a curtain side trailer and fleets the process can be carried out entirely on-line and over the phone.
Once you have a design worked up that fits your needs, it’s time to prepare it to be converted into a full-size curtain image. Depending on whether curtain artwork will be created by a silk-screen process or digitally printed, here are some guidelines to meet out standardized requirements.
The Silkscreen Printing Process for Curtainsiders
- Silk-screen designs must be submitted as vector artwork (using Adobe Illustrator) and should be saved in one of these common graphics formats: AI, EPS or vector based PDF.
- Where type is utilized in the design, it is best to create all type into outlines. This replaces the typed content and turns it into artwork so the printer doesn't have font or alignment issues with your design.
- Specify all colors utilized in the design as Pantone (PMS color) call-outs or a Roland curtain color. Where Pantone color information isn’t available, you’ll need to supply an example such as a color proof or a swatch sample.
- Curtainside artwork—silk-screen or digital—is too large in file size to be emailed. Instead, it can be uploaded to the Roland FTP site, or burned on a CD or DVD and sent by regular mail or any express service.
The Digital Printing Process for Curtainsiders
- All digital images submitted must have a resolution of at least 400 dpi— including any embedded images incorporated in the design. Images should be scaled down to one-fourth the desired final output size.
- Images should be submitted in layered mode so that, in the event of any necessary changes, an entirely new version of the artwork will not be required.
- For artwork with mostly text and/or vector images, the preferred formal for submission is Illustrator (.ai or .eps) while a purely photographic design should be provided in layered Adobe Photoshop (.psd).
- Where a photographic image is embedded in a text design, save the photo as a .psd file. You may also provide a scan of the photo itself at the proper resolution separately as part of the submission.
- Submit all images in CMYK. Convert any other color formats that may be used to CMYK before submission. It’s a good idea to submit the fonts utilized for any text in the design, as well, in the event a specific desired font isn’t on file.
Want to learn more about how to add graphics to your curtainside trailer, curtain van and/or curtain side body in your fleet, then just Contact a Sales Rep, use our Contact Us Page, Ask a Question Page, or just give us a call at 817-607-0080.
Would you like to shear how one company is moving from flatbeds to curtainside trucks and trailers as well as adding graphics and adverting to their fleet? Download and read this Case Study!
