12 x 18 Bandit Signs Cost: 1 to 100 Signs, Sides and Stakes

What Does a Double-Sided 12 x 18 Bandit Sign Cost?

A double-sided bandit sign is $64.19 for one, $160.49 for ten and $1,294.69 for one hundred. The second face is printed on the same panel, so the difference is ink and press time, not a second sheet of plastic.

One rung on the double-sided ladder is worth knowing. Three double-sided signs and five double-sided signs are both $106.99. If you need three or four two-faced signs, order five and keep the spares; the total does not change. The single-sided ladder has no such step, so three single-sided signs at $85.59 and five at $96.29 are priced apart.

Choose double sided for directional arrows at an intersection, a corner lot or a sign set sideways to the road, where cars pass it from both directions. Choose single sided for a sign that backs onto a fence, a garage door or a hedge. On a route of twenty signs the single-sided total is $246.09 and the double-sided total is $310.29, so sides are worth deciding one placement at a time.

How Much Are Stakes for a 12 x 18 Bandit Sign?

A standard wire H-stake is $3.00 each, and the heavy-duty grade is $4.00 each on orders of 10 signs or more. Neither is in the sign price. On the product page the H-Stakes row defaults to no stakes; pick a grade and the count fills with one per sign, which you can change to any number up to 100.

For a bandit sign the standard stake is almost always enough. The panel is light and small, so wind load is low, and most routes are up for a weekend. The heavy-duty stake earns its extra dollar on hard-packed ground, a long campaign or a windy frontage. Ten signs with ten standard stakes are $158.39; the same ten with heavy-duty stakes are $168.39. At one hundred signs the two totals are $1,273.69 and $1,373.69.

Stakes are priced per stake, so they add the same amount to a double-sided order as to a single-sided one. If you already own stakes, leave the row on no stakes and the line stays signs only.

What Is a 12 x 18 Bandit Sign For?

A 12 x 18 bandit sign is for a message that has to go up fast, read from close range and come down again: open house arrows, weekend promotions, garage sales, a food truck's location for the day, and directional signs for a race or a church event. The rule of thumb is one inch of capital letter height for every ten feet of reading distance, and an 18 inch wide panel carries 4 inch capitals comfortably, which reads from about 40 feet.

That makes it a route sign, not a frontage sign. The sample lawn-care brand Thornquist Lawn Care puts one at the end of every driveway it mows, where the next-door neighbor sees it from the sidewalk. The sample real-estate brand Pinecrest Open Houses puts six arrows between the main road and the listing, one at each turn, and picks them up at five o'clock. Both of those jobs want many small signs, not one large one, and the ladder is built for that.

Two things to know before a route goes up. Public right of way, medians and utility poles are regulated almost everywhere, and the rules vary by jurisdiction, so check them before the first sign goes in. And small signs are easy to over-fill. One name, one arrow or one offer, and a phone number, is the whole message at this size.

How Does a 12 x 18 Bandit Sign Compare With an 18 x 24 Sign?

A single 12 x 18 bandit sign and a single 18 x 24 standard sign are the same $53.49, so the difference at one sign is reach, not price: the standard sign carries 6 inch capitals and reads from about 60 feet, where the bandit sign reads from about 40. The bandit ladder pulls ahead on volume, with rungs at 40, 60, 80 and 100 signs that the standard page does not have, which is why routes and campaigns land here.

What Bleed and Safe Area Does a 12 x 18 Bandit Sign Need?

Build the file at 18.25 x 12.25 inches, which is the 18 x 12 inch landscape trim plus 0.125 inch of bleed on every side, and keep all text inside a 17 x 11 inch safe area, 0.5 inch in from the cut line. Any background color must run out to the full 18.25 x 12.25 inch edge.

Bleed exists because coroplast is cut in a stack and a stack moves a little. A background that stops exactly at the trim shows a white sliver when the cut lands a sixteenth of an inch inside the line. A background that runs to the bleed line hides the same shift completely. The safe area protects the other direction: text 0.5 inch inside the trim stays whole on every sign in the run.

Keep the bottom 2 inches clear of anything important. That band is where the stake legs enter the flutes and where grass hides the edge, and on a 12 inch tall sign it is a sixth of the panel, so plan for it. The sign reads well at 150 dpi, which is 2700 x 1800 pixels at trim; a vector file or a PDF built at size is the clean send.

What We See on Proofs for Bandit Signs

The thing we catch most on bandit signs is too much message. A file arrives with a logo, a tagline, four services, a phone number, a website and a social handle on an 18 x 12 inch panel, and the biggest type on it is an inch and a half tall. From a car that is a green rectangle. We send the proof back with a note: pick the one line a driver has to read, make it 4 inches tall, and move the rest to the door hanger or the website.

The second is an arrow drawn too small. A directional sign is the arrow, and the arrow should be at least a third of the panel height. We also ask which way it points at each placement, because a route usually needs some left and some right, and the file only has one.

The third is a phone number in the bottom 2 inches. On this size that band is a sixth of the panel, and it disappears into the grass the moment the sign is staked. We flag it on the proof and move it up.

How Do You Order a 12 x 18 Bandit Sign?

Open the 12 x 18 bandit yard sign page, pick single or double sided, choose the quantity from 1 to 100, and add standard or heavy-duty H-stakes if the signs go in the ground. The total updates as you go. Send your image through AI image to print for $14.99 once per item or choose Design it for me, and after checkout we send a free digital proof.

Approve the proof and production is the next business day. The order ships nationwide for a flat $10 to any US address. Single-sided prices run from $53.49 for one sign to $973.69 for one hundred, and every figure on this page is the figure the page charges today.