What every number actually means.

Why it decides the job

It sets how bright the finished panel reads, and — more usefully — how far the lamps can sit behind it. A fabric that transmits more lets a shallower box throw an even field; a fabric that transmits less needs depth, or it hot-spots over every LED.

Higher is not automatically better. A high-transmission face in a shallow box shows the fixtures through it.

Measured by

Diffuse transmittance, integrating sphere

Unit

%

Why it decides the job

On a frontlit graphic it is what keeps the structure behind the fabric from reading through it — seams, truss, the wall. On a double-sided banner it is what stops the back image ghosting into the front.

Measured by

Diffuse transmittance, integrating sphere

Unit

%

Why it decides the job

It is the whole specification for a double-sided hanging banner. Anything short of complete blockout and the reverse image shows through as a ghost, which on a 5 m ceiling banner is visible from the floor and cannot be fixed after the fact.

Measured by

Diffuse transmittance, integrating sphere

Unit

%

Why it decides the job

It drives three practical things: what a roll weighs on the freight bill, how the fabric hangs when it is not under tension, and how much ink the face will take before it strikes through. Heavier cloth hangs flatter unsupported and costs more to ship.

Measured by

Conditioned mass per unit area

Against

ISO 3801

Unit

g/m²

Why it decides the job

It decides whether the finished edge fits the hardware. A silicone keder sized for 0.45 mm cloth will not seat 0.57 mm, and a channel cut for thick stock lets thin cloth rattle loose under tension. Check it against the extrusion before the job, not after.

Measured by

Caliper under defined pressure

Unit

mm

Why it decides the job

Width is seam count, and seam count is the job. A 4.8 m wall off a 320 cm roll is two drops and a seam down the middle of the graphic; off a 500 cm roll it is one piece and no seam at all. For a backlit box the seam is worse again, because a lit seam is a line nobody stops seeing.

Measured by

Stock roll width

Unit

cm

Why it decides the job

Run cold and the dye does not fully sublimate — colour comes up weak and washes further on the second pass. Run hot and the polyester starts to move: the same heat that fixes the dye shrinks the cloth, and a panel that was cut to size before transfer is no longer that size after it.

Measured by

Transfer press, published window

Why it decides the job

Dwell and temperature trade against each other: a shorter time at the top of the heat window and a longer one at the bottom can land the same colour. What does not trade is going short on both — the dye never fully sublimates and the panel comes off the press looking washed.

Measured by

Transfer press, published window

Why it decides the job

It is the first question a print shop actually asks, because it decides whether a roll can run on the press they already own. Everything else on this page is a reason to choose between two fabrics; this one decides whether a fabric is a candidate.

Measured by

Qualified on press