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Ace Tips: Designing for Backlit Displays
If you’ve ever seen a backlit display in action, you know how powerful it can be. Bright, vibrant, and hard to miss—a well-designed backlit graphic can instantly grab the attention of anyone that walks in the room.
But here’s the catch: designing for backlit displays is not the same as designing for standard prints.
Backlighting changes how your colors appear. If your design isn’t optimized, you could end up with washed-out visuals or dull graphics.
That's why we’re sharing 3 essential design tips to help you get the most out of your backlit setup.
Backlit Fabric
Our backlit products use a special fabric.
When designing for your backlit display, it is important to keep some key factors in mind. Our backlit products use a special fabric that is designed to be illuminated by lights from within.
Fabric Properties
This fabric has some unique properties compared to fabric that is designed to be lit from the front. In order to achieve the best outcome, please note the following when designing for your backlit display.
Notes When Designing For Your Backlit Display
Avoid Large Areas of Solid Black or Very Dark Color
Because the fabric needs to allow light to shine through the fabric to illuminate the printed colors, very dark colors can appear to be washed out or faded. This is especially true for large areas of solid black.
We recommend avoiding large areas of solid black or very dark color. For best results, use light and/or bright colors rather than dark colors.
Backlit vs Front-lit Colors
Please keep in mind that the eye perceives backlit vs. front-lit colors differently.
As a result, the difference in colors between backlit and front-lit products can seem significant, even if they are the same color.
Backlit Display Graphic
When you receive your backlit display graphic, out of the box the colors may look different than you expect. You will need to assemble your display, install the graphic, and turn on the lights in order to see accurate colors.
Our printers are calibrated for color accuracy only once the graphic is lit. The colors may not be accurate if the graphic is not backlit.
Examples
Bright & Light Colors
Avoid Solid Black
backlit and frontlit items
The files were designed with the same turquoise color. You can see the difference between backlit (the display backdrop) vs. front-lit (the counter) and how it visually affects the color.
Great design makes a huge difference! With backlit displays, that’s especially true. Follow these tips and your display will stand out in any setting, from trade show floors to retail environments.
At Ace Displays, we offer premium backlit displays, design guidance, and full support to help you look your best.
👉 Explore our backlit display solutions!
📞 Need design help? Contact our Displays Experts today!
About Ace Displays
In 2006, Ace Displays was founded in Southern California with the desire to provide quality products at competitive prices with the fastest delivery times in the industry. We believe purchasing an event display and its accessories should be an easy and exciting experience. Leveraging our short lead times to differentiate ourselves, we exist to connect people by providing event solutions that create conversations and lasting impressions.
Our Mission
Our mission is to provide the best event & trade show displays at budget-friendly prices with unparalleled service to ensure we exceed our clients expectations and to foster an environment our employees are proud to work in.
The Ace Method
We are excited to work with you - from meeting your budget to meeting your deadlines - we will help you create a display that looks great and asserts your presence. To aid in what can be a rather laborious process, Ace has developed a 6-step method to get you a display quickly and easily so you can focus your time on other areas of your business and upcoming events.