Nothing wastes a billboard budget faster than artwork that was designed for a screen. A billboard is read at forty miles an hour, from across a carriageway, in bright Caribbean sunlight. The design rules are genuinely different, and the file specs are unforgiving.
This is the reference sheet we give designers and agencies working on Jamaican outdoor campaigns.
Static billboard dimensions
Jamaica uses the international sheet-based sizing system. The two formats that matter most here:
| Format | Imperial | Metric | Aspect ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| 48 sheet | 20ft x 10ft | 6.096m x 3.048m | 2:1 |
| 96 sheet | 40ft x 10ft | 12.192m x 3.048m | 4:1 |
The 96 sheet is the format most people picture when they think of a large roadside billboard — our Central Dealers Mall site in Mandeville is a 40ft x 10ft board, sitting above the traffic Manchester sees daily.
The 4:1 ratio on a 96 sheet is the thing designers most often get wrong. It is extremely wide and shallow. A layout that works on a 48 sheet will look lost on a 96.
How to set up the file
You do not design a billboard at full size. Standard practice is one of two approaches:
- 1:10 scale at 300 dpi. A 48 sheet becomes 24in x 12in at 300 dpi. This is the most common and the easiest to work with.
- Full size at 30 dpi. Less common, but some printers prefer it.
Either way the effective output resolution is the same. What matters is telling the printer which you have used.
Colour
Build in CMYK, not RGB. Screens are additive and print is subtractive — a vivid RGB blue or green will shift noticeably when it goes to press. If brand colours are critical, supply Pantone references and expect a proof.
Bleed and safe area
Add a minimum of 100mm bleed on all sides for static billboards. Keep all text and logos at least 200mm inside the trim on every edge — boards are stretched and fixed to a frame, and edges do get eaten.
Fonts and files
Outline all type before supplying. Send PDF/X-1a or a packaged file with linked images. Avoid transparency effects that have not been flattened.
Digital LED specs
Digital is simpler in some ways and stricter in others. There is no bleed, no print variance and no production cost, but the file has to match the screen exactly.
Pixel dimensions vary from site to site because pixel pitch and panel size differ across the network. There is no single standard to design to, so always request the spec for the specific screen you have booked before starting artwork. Supplying a file at the wrong ratio means it is either letterboxed or cropped, and neither looks deliberate.
- Colour: RGB, not CMYK. The screen is emissive, so build for it.
- Format: JPG or PNG for stills, MP4 for motion.
- Contrast: higher than feels necessary. LED in direct Jamaican sun loses subtlety fast.
- No bleed: the file is the frame, edge to edge.
Ask us for the spec sheet for your booked site and we will send exact dimensions, slot length and accepted formats.
The design rules that actually decide whether it works
Six words or fewer
This is the one rule nobody should break. A driver at 50 km/h has roughly five seconds of usable attention. Six words is the practical ceiling for a headline that gets read, understood and remembered.
One idea per board
Not a headline plus three bullet points plus an offer plus a QR code. If the brief contains several messages, that is an argument for several boards or a digital site where you can rotate them — not for cramming.
Type big, and then bigger
As a working minimum, the main headline should be at least one fifth the height of the board. On a 10ft tall billboard that means roughly two feet of cap height. It will look absurd on your monitor. It will be barely adequate on the road.
Contrast beats colour
Jamaican sun is brutal on mid-tones. Dark text on a light field, or light text on a dark field, reads. Mid-grey on mid-blue does not. Test your layout by shrinking it to thumbnail size — if it is unreadable at 5% zoom, it will be unreadable from a car.
Logo placement
Bottom right is conventional and works because it is where the eye finishes. Make it large enough to identify at distance but do not let it compete with the headline.
Avoid QR codes on roadside boards
They work on indoor screens where people are standing still — supermarket aisles, service counters, waiting rooms. On a roadside billboard passed at speed, nobody is scanning. Use a short, memorable URL instead.
A quick pre-flight checklist
- Correct size and ratio for the specific site booked
- CMYK for print, RGB for LED
- Bleed and safe area respected on static
- Fonts outlined
- Headline six words or fewer
- Readable as a thumbnail
- Contact detail short enough to remember
If you would rather hand this over, we design billboard artwork in house — see our services or get in touch.