Splitting hoarding graphics across butted sheets
A 40-metre hoarding is not one print. It is a numbered run of butted panels, and the way the artwork is divided decides whether the joins disappear on site or line up 5mm out all the way down the fence.
Butted, not overlapped
Rigid hoarding panels butt edge to edge against the rail — they cannot overlap like vinyl on a wall. That means each panel must carry exactly its share of the artwork, with a small overhang so the print runs off the sheet edge rather than stopping short of it.
Full sheets print 3mm off every edge. The sheet edge itself is the trim, so no cutter path is needed and nothing is lost at the join.
Full sheets versus bespoke panels
Most of a run is full sheets. The remainder — the last panel, a panel around a gate, a shaped return — is a bespoke width or profile, and those are the only panels that need a cut file.
Bespoke panels are nested onto sheets with 6mm register dots and your cutter layers, so the flatbed picks them up accurately. Keeping cut files off the full sheets saves cutting time on the majority of the job.
Rise and drop that accumulates
Ground rarely stays level. Where a hoarding climbs, each panel sits a set amount higher than the one before, and that step has to accumulate along the run — panel three is two steps up, not one.
Set the rise or drop per panel and the run follows the ground. A run that resets to zero on each panel is the classic reason artwork ends up cropped differently at either end of the fence.
Numbering and labelling
- Number every panel in hanging order, left to right as the crew faces the hoarding.
- Label each panel with its finished size so bespoke widths are obvious on the bed.
- Keep labels outside the trim so they never appear on the fitted job.
- Add header and kicker guides where a rail or plinth covers part of the panel, so no critical copy hides behind it.
Working from a site survey
Survey widths rarely divide evenly into sheets. Build the panel run from the surveyed measurements — a spreadsheet of widths, heights and steps is enough — and let the split fall where the sheets allow, rather than forcing the artwork into equal panels that then need trimming on site.
Very long runs need a canvas larger than a design format normally allows, so PSD Pro Suite writes them as native large-canvas Illustrator artwork at 10% scale, covering runs up to roughly 57 metres, with multi-sheet output delivered as a zip.
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