Portable display is a small family of products that all do roughly the same job, stand a printed message on a floor without fixing it to anything, and get chosen wrong constantly, because they look interchangeable from a distance. They are not. A pull-up, a toblerone and a standee each answer a different brief, and picking by habit rather than by the job is how a client ends up with the wrong one.
This guide is the router. It sets out what each product is for, the questions that decide between them, and where none of them is the answer.
The three products in one line each
- Pull-up banner: a tall, portable, retractable graphic on a spring base. For messages that travel, set up in a minute, and pack into a bag.
- Toblerone sign: a low, two-sided tent folded from one sheet of corrugated plastic. For floor and counter messaging read from both directions, at the lowest cost.
- Standee: a rigid panel cut to a shape with a strut on the back. For figures, products and outlines that need to stand on their own.
All three are indoor products. All three need no hardware beyond what ships with them. The differences are height, shape, sidedness, portability and price, and those are the decision.
Five questions that pick the product
1. Does it need to travel? If the display goes to events, conferences and pop-ups and comes home again, it needs to pack down. That is the pull-up's whole reason to exist: retract, bag, carry, repeat. A standee travels flat but is bulky and vulnerable at the edges; a toblerone folds flat and travels well for its size, but is a low-cost item you would more often reprint than protect. Frequent travel points to a pull-up.
2. Does it need height? A pull-up gives you a 2000mm or 2100mm visible graphic on an 850mm footprint, read from across a room at eye level. A standee can reach 2400mm for a life-size figure. A toblerone is a low product, 400mm or 600mm faces, built for floor and counter level, not for being seen over a crowd. If the message has to carry across a space, it is a pull-up or a tall standee.
3. Does it need to be a shape? Only a standee can be cut to an outline. A figure, a product silhouette, a mascot, a character: that is standee territory, and nothing else on this page does it. If the answer to "is it a rectangle?" is no, the decision is already made.
4. Does it need to read from two sides? A toblerone is two-sided by construction, with a printed face on each side of the ridge, which makes it the natural product for counters, tables, queue lines and floor positions approached from both directions. Pull-ups and standees are single-sided. If people walk past from both sides, think toblerone first.
5. What is the budget per unit? A toblerone is the cheapest self-standing display we make, a printed and scored sheet with no hardware at all. A pull-up carries a stand and mechanism. A standee carries a rigid panel, custom cutting and a fitted strut. When the brief is "lots of them, cheaply," toblerone; when it is "one good one," the other two.
Matching the answers to the product
- Travels often, needs height, single message → pull-up (Standard for frequent travel, Premium for permanent placement).
- Low-level, two-sided, cost-driven, counters and floors → toblerone.
- A shape, a figure, a cut-out, up to life size → standee.
- Tall, semi-permanent, premium setting → Premium pull-up or a tall standee on KAPAPlast.
- Many units across many sites on a tight budget → toblerone.
Each product has its own deep guide: pull-up banners, toblerone signs and standees, covering models, materials, sizes and the artwork rules for each.
The artwork rule each one hinges on
Every product on this page has one artwork rule that, if missed, produces a display that does not work. Worth knowing before the brief goes to a designer:
- Pull-up: the stand hides 100mm of print, 10mm in the top rail and 90mm in the base, so the file is 100mm taller than the visible graphic, and critical content stays 50mm from the top and sides and 150mm from the bottom.
- Toblerone: both faces and the base flap live on one flat template, and the scored fold lines are treated like trim edges, so text stays clear of them and the base flap is background.
- Standee: the centre 350mm of the bottom edge must be flat and uninterrupted for the strut to mount, with shaping allowed on the outer edges only and contact points at both ends.
None of these is difficult. All of them are missed by designers who have not made the product before, which is exactly what the individual guides are for.
Where none of them is the answer
Portable display is an indoor family. The boundaries are shared:
- Outdoors, for more than a sheltered afternoon → none of these. A pull-up's base is not wind-weighted and weather voids its warranty; a toblerone is a light unweighted tent; a standee is a panel on a cardboard strut. Outdoor jobs belong on a fixed PVC banner or a rigid corflute or ACM sign.
- Permanent, never moves, a wall is available → a mounted rigid sign or a keder banner in a frame, not a floor-standing product using up floor space.
- Read from a distance outdoors → banners and rigid signage, which scale and fix in ways portable display does not.
We make all of those alternatives too, so the recommendation is about the job rather than the sale.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between a pull-up banner, a toblerone sign and a standee? A pull-up is a tall retractable graphic on a spring base, built to travel and set up in a minute. A toblerone is a low two-sided tent folded from one sheet of corrugated plastic, the cheapest self-standing display. A standee is a rigid panel cut to a shape with a rear strut, the only one that can be a figure or an outline. All three are indoor, hardware-free floor displays.
Which portable display is cheapest? The toblerone sign. It is a printed and scored sheet with no hardware, which makes it the low-cost option for multiple units across counters, floors and sites. Pull-ups carry a stand and mechanism; standees carry a rigid panel, custom cutting and a fitted strut.
Which display should I use for a life-size cut-out? A standee. It is the only portable display that can be cut to an outline, up to 1200 x 2400mm, and it stands on its own via the rear strut. For a full-height figure, the larger 1400mm strut is fitted automatically, and KAPAPlast gives the flattest, most rigid panel at that size.
Which display reads from both sides? The toblerone sign, which has a printed face on each side of its ridge by construction. Pull-ups and standees are single-sided, so for counters, tables and queue lines approached from both directions, the toblerone is the natural choice.
Can any of these be used outdoors? Not as a rule. All three are indoor products: the pull-up's warranty excludes weather damage, the toblerone is a light unweighted tent, and the standee sits on a cardboard strut. Sheltered, short-term use on corrugated plastic is the most any of them tolerates. Outdoor jobs need a fixed PVC banner or rigid sign.
Which pull-up model should I choose? Standard for banners that travel often and short campaigns; Premium for permanent placements and premium settings where the heavier base and the extra 100mm of height earn their keep. Print, kit and warranty are identical.
Key takeaways
- Pull-ups travel and give height; toblerones are low, two-sided and cheapest; standees are the only shaped option.
- Decide on five questions: travel, height, shape, sidedness, and budget per unit.
- Each product has one artwork rule that decides whether it works: the pull-up's hidden 100mm, the toblerone's fold lines, the standee's flat 350mm base.
- All three are indoor products; outdoor and permanent jobs belong on fixed banners or rigid signage.
- The individual guides carry the models, materials, sizes and full artwork setup for each.
Get the right display for the job
Tell us whether it travels, how tall it needs to be, whether it is a shape, whether it reads from two sides, and how many you need, and the product picks itself. Mediapoint supplies trade-only, blind-shipped pull-up banners, toblerone signs and standees, along with the banners and rigid signage for the jobs that are not portable display. Send the brief through for a quote.
