How To
Hem and grommet a banner the right way
Clean hems and evenly spaced grommets in Illustrator, so the banner hangs flat, spreads the load, and holds up outside.
A banner is only as good as its edges. A raw edge frays in the wind and tears right at the grommet, and grommets that are placed by eye leave the banner sagging between the gaps and pulling hard at the corners. Get the finish right and the thing hangs flat, takes the wind, and lasts a season instead of a weekend.
The slow way, and where it bites
By hand it is a lot of measuring: draw the fold line, step in from each edge, drop a grommet, measure to the next, and try to make the four corners agree. On a short banner it is fine. On a twenty-foot run it is a tape measure, a lot of arithmetic, and plenty of chances for one gap to come out wider than the rest, or for a grommet to land right in the middle of the artwork.
The fast way: let the script lay it out
Instead of measuring, let the Hem & Grommet Marks script that ships with FlightDeck do it. It draws a 1" dashed fold line just outside the banner and distributes evenly spaced grommet targets inside the finished edge, corners included, in one pass.
- Select the banner artwork at its finished size, not the bleed.
- Go to File > Scripts and run Hem & Grommet Marks.
- Set the hem allowance. 1" is the standard fold.
- Set the grommet spacing and the corner inset.
- Let it draw the dashed fold line and drop the evenly spaced targets.
- Send it to production with the marks on their own layer.
One pass, and the spacing is even all the way around, the corners match, and nothing lands on the art.
Shop tip
Rules of thumb: a grommet every 24" on center for a standard banner, tightened to about 18" for windy spots or mesh. Always put one in each corner, set in roughly 1" from the finished edge, and keep the hem at 1" unless the customer asks otherwise.
Why even spacing matters
Grommets are where the load lives. Space them evenly and the pull spreads across the whole edge, so no single grommet carries the banner and the fabric does not pucker between them. Space them by eye and the wide gaps sag while the tight ones tear. Doing it in one pass is not just faster, it is what keeps the banner flat on the wall and out of the reprint pile.