Window Vinyl Printing London
020 3375 6674 info@silverimagelondon.com Open 24 hours, 7 days a week — call or email and we will tell you what is possible today.
Window film printed and cut in London the same day: frosted privacy film, contra-vision for shopfronts, and manifestation bands for glass doors. Supplied cut, weeded and application-taped for your shopfitter — or surveyed and fitted by our installers, scheduled with the quote. Frosted is cut, not printed; contra-vision prints at full strength; and for full-colour work on glass we use white or opaque film rather than pretending clear film can carry it.
Every job is quoted on its specification. Send the glass sizes and what the film is for and we will come back with a firm figure.
What window film does, and the three jobs it is bought for
Glass is the largest blank surface most London businesses own, and window film is how it gets put to work. Almost every enquiry is one of three jobs. Privacy: a meeting room or a ground-floor office where people should not be on display, but the daylight has to stay. Advertising: a shopfront that needs to carry a promotion, a brand or a season. Safety: manifestation markings so nobody walks into a glass door.
Each job has a different film, and choosing by picture rather than by function is how offices end up with a shopfront solution on a boardroom. Frosted etch film obscures the view both ways and keeps the light — the privacy answer. Contra-vision is perforated: a printed image faces the street while the people inside keep a usable view out — the shopfront answer. Cut and printed opaque film carries logos, lettering and colour blocks anywhere on the glass.
Retail launches work to the same clock: window print for the units at King's Cross goes up before the doors open, not after.
Which of the three you need usually follows the street. Shopfronts in Shoreditch and Camden Town ask for contra-vision, because the promotion has to face out while the staff keep a view of the pavement. The showrooms and consulting rooms of Chelsea ask for frosted film, for the opposite reason.
Where it goes: offices and meeting rooms — frosted bands at desk height, logos cut into the frost, manifestation that doubles as branding; shopfronts and salons — contra-vision windows, promotional graphics, opening hours; clinics and treatment rooms — dense frost where nothing may be visible; and vacant units, where full-coverage film hides a fit-out and advertises what is coming.
| Film | Privacy | Daylight | Right for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frosted etch, cut | Obscures both ways | Passes through — no blackout | Meeting rooms, ground-floor offices, manifestation bands, logos cut into the frost |
| Contra-vision, printed | Blocks the view in during daylight | Reduced, still usable from inside | Shopfronts and salons: image out to the street, view out for staff |
| White or opaque film, printed | Total — solid film | Blocked where the film covers | Full-colour graphics, promotions, covering a vacant unit or a fit-out |
| Cut coloured or clear film | None — shapes only | Unaffected between the shapes | Lettering, opening hours and logos where the glass should stay clear |
Colour on glass, honestly
Here is the thing most window-graphics pages avoid saying. Printing full colour onto clear film needs a white ink layer behind the image, otherwise daylight passes straight through the CMYK and the graphic looks washed out and weak. We do not print white ink — so instead of selling a compromise, we do the job the two ways that actually work.
Print on white or opaque film. The material supplies the backing the ink needs, so colours stay solid and dense on the glass. This is the right answer for promotions, full-coverage window wraps and anything covering a vacant unit — and it is what most "printed window graphics" are anyway, because they are meant to be seen, not seen through.
Or cut the design instead of printing it. Frosted, coloured and metallic films are cut on our plotters, so the colour is the material rather than ink on top of it — permanently opaque, no wash-out, and the glass stays clear everywhere the film is not. Lettering, logos, opening hours and frosted bands all work better cut than printed.
And the exception that matters commercially: contra-vision needs no white ink at all. The perforated film has a white printing face by construction, so a shopfront image prints at full strength. It is a full product here, not a workaround.
Inside or outside, and getting the glass measured
Which face the film goes on changes the artwork, so it is settled before printing. Second surface — inside the glass, facing out — is the default we recommend where the inner face is reachable: the artwork is mirrored, and once fitted the glass itself protects the graphic from weather, window cleaners and anyone with a marker pen. First surface — the outside — is needed when displays or shutters block the inside, and always for contra-vision, which has to face the street to work at all.
Measuring is where window jobs go wrong. Glass is rarely square: measure each pane at the top, the middle and the bottom, because a 4 mm difference across a shopfront is normal and shows up as a visibly crooked film edge. Add allowance so the installer can trim flush into the rubber gaskets rather than leaving a hairline of bare glass. If you are unsure, that is exactly what the survey is for.
We survey and we fit. Our installers measure the glass, check the film choice against the light and the sightlines, and installation is scheduled with the quote — usually early morning before a shop opens or out of hours in an office. Supply-only is equally normal: cut, weeded, application-taped and boxed for your own shopfitter.
Artwork specifications
Cut paths, mirroring, sizes, colour, format
Glass is a harsh critic — start with artwork that passes a resolution check.
| Requirement | What we need | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Glass sizes | Each pane measured at top, middle and bottom | Windows are rarely square. One measurement per pane is how a film ends up 4 mm short at one end. |
| Which face | Say whether the film goes inside or outside | It decides whether the artwork is mirrored. We handle the mirroring — supply artwork the right way round. |
| Cut path | Vector line on its own layer for anything cut | The plotter follows a path, not the picture — frosted lettering and logos are cut, not printed. |
| Colour on glass | Full colour goes on white or opaque film; or the design is cut | We do not print white ink, so CMYK on clear film washes out. Both alternatives look better anyway. |
| Bleed | 10–15 mm on full-pane coverage | The installer trims flush into the gasket; bleed is what makes that edge clean. |
| Colour mode | CMYK, Pantone references for brand colours | Window film sits next to painted brand surfaces — a near-miss reads wrong from the pavement. |
Before you upload
- Send pane-by-pane sizes, measured in three places
- Say what the film is for: privacy, branding or manifestation
- State inside or outside application — or ask for the survey
- Export a print-ready PDF, fonts converted to outlines
- Say how long the graphic must last — it chooses the adhesive
Q&A
Frosted if the job is privacy: it obscures the view both ways and keeps the daylight, which is why meeting rooms and ground-floor offices use it. Contra-vision if the job is a shopfront: a printed image faces the street while the people behind the glass keep a usable view out. Privacy inwards, advertising outwards - they solve different problems.
Not onto clear film - we print CMYK without a white ink layer, and CMYK on clear glass washes out in daylight. There are two honest routes to the same result: print on white or opaque film where the material supplies the backing, or cut the design from coloured and frosted film so the colour is the material itself. Contra-vision is unaffected: the perforated film carries its own white printing face, so shopfront images print at full strength.
It reverses. The effect runs on light difference: in daylight the street is brighter, so passers-by see your image and staff see out. At night, with the interior lit and the street dark, people outside can see in. If evening privacy matters, light the outside of the glass or plan for the flip - it is physics, not a fault in the film.
They are the markings that stop people walking into glass doors and full-height glazing. The guidance normally cited on UK projects - Approved Document M and BS 6262-4 - puts contrasting markings in two bands, roughly 850 to 1000 mm and 1400 to 1600 mm above the floor, contrasting against whatever is seen through the glass in daylight and under artificial light. Dots, bands or your logo all qualify, so the safety marking can be the branding.
Inside where we can: the graphic is printed or cut in mirror, applied to the inner face, and the glass then protects it from weather, cleaners and spray paint. Outside is necessary when the interior is blocked by displays or security shutters, and always for contra-vision, which has to face the street to work. Tell us which face is reachable and we set the artwork up accordingly.
From glass, yes - it is the friendliest surface there is. Warm the film gently, peel it back on itself, and clean any residue with isopropyl alcohol. Say at the quote how long the graphic is meant to live: a seasonal promotion and a permanent manifestation take different adhesives, and the wrong one either falls off early or fights you at removal.
Both. Supply-only leaves here cut, weeded and application-taped for your shopfitter. For fitted work we survey first - glass is rarely square, so panes get measured top, middle and bottom - and installation is scheduled with the quote, usually early morning before a shop opens.
Often ordered with this
Key facts: ordering tonight
- Open 24 hours, 7 days a week, including Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays.
- Print production runs 24/7; the walk-in counter serves the day and evening, and the status bar at the top of the page shows live whether it is open right now.
- Files and payment received by 21:00 → overnight production for delivery before 9am the next morning, subject to that night’s capacity; we confirm at quotation whether the run fits.
- No fixed overnight cap: tell us the quantity and we say at quotation whether it can be done in time.
- Overnight jobs are normally couriered to arrive before your office opens; collection is arranged around your arrival time — call before you set off after 8pm so the job is bagged and waiting at the counter.
- No minimum for walk-in jobs during the day — one copy is a normal job. Out-of-hours collection or delivery carries a £95 minimum plus courier if required.
- Same-day and overnight courier delivery across London, most often EC1–EC4, W1, WC1–WC2, E14 and SW1.
- Exhibition delivery to ExCeL, Olympia, the Business Design Centre and other venues: send us the hall, your stand number, the named person on the stand and their mobile, and the build-day or opening time you need it by; we deliver to the stand.
- Send what you have: we check the artwork before anything goes on press and tell you what to fix; a print-ready PDF (CMYK, 3 mm bleed) is the fastest route.
- Quotes come with a secure payment link — Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal and Klarna; production starts once payment is in.
- Courier delivery within London is usually in the region of £35–45, depending on the postcode and which courier is free; the exact figure is on your quote and is added to the job price.
- A proof is available on request; when we design the artwork you always get a final proof to approve. Print-ready files are printed on site and our operator checks the run against a printed proof sample before it leaves.
- Before we accept an urgent job we look at what could go wrong with the file, the stock and the finishing, and plan so that a reprint would still fit inside your deadline.
- Every order has a dedicated member of staff and an agreed completion deadline; we do not run an e-commerce queue, so the time we give you is for your job.
- Bank transfer is accepted alongside the payment link: tell us when you have sent it — the job goes to production once accounts confirm it has arrived.
- Outside London and towards the M25 courier costs more: we check with the couriers and confirm the price with you before booking.
- Cast vinyl is rated for 5–7 years outdoors, monomeric vinyl typically lasts 1–3 years on flat surfaces, and removable-adhesive films are available for glass.
- Supply printed vinyl artwork at 150 dpi at finished size, with vector artwork for cut lettering.
Send the glass sizes and what the film is for
Pane sizes, the job — privacy, branding or manifestation — which face is reachable and whether you want fitting. We come back with a firm figure and the right film, not the default one.
Open 24 hours, 7 days a week. Call before you set off after 8pm so we have your film ready at the counter.
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