“Blockout” describes an outcome, not a construction. It means no light and no artwork bleeds through from the other side. UltraFlex builds that outcome three different ways: a black-back film or coating behind a single print surface, a grey back layer behind a single print surface, and a double-sided build with two matched print surfaces and an opaque core. Those three are not interchangeable. Pick the wrong one and you either pay for a second print surface you will never use, or you take a purchase order for a double-sided pole banner and reprint it on your own dime.
There are 23 products in the UltraFlex Blockout Media category, from a 7 oz. billboard substrate to a 20 oz. dual-print banner. This is how to get from that list to one line on a quote.
Key takeaways
- Answer one question first: how many sides get artwork? One side means black-back or greyback. Two sides means a double-sided build.
- Greyback is for close viewing, black-back is for distance. A grey layer kills shadowing in a retractable stand at arm’s length. A black layer is what open-framed billboard systems need.
- Weight tracks the hanging method, not the opacity. Full opacity starts at 7 oz. The 18 oz and 20 oz grades exist for wind and hardware, not for light blocking.
- 17 of the 23 blockout products list Latex compatibility. Six do not. Check the ink list before you quote, not after the job is on the press.
- Get the flame certificate, not the marketing word. Only the two UltraBlockout® Banner Pro grades list ASTM-E84, Canada ULC, NFPA 701, Title 19/California and CSFM together.
Blockout is three constructions, not one
Every blockout product on the UltraFlex line falls into one of three builds. Identify the build first and the rest of the spec follows.
| Build | Print surfaces | Weight range on the line | Built for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Black-back (Eclipse®) | One | 7 oz. to 8.5 oz. | Open-framed billboards, hanging signs, one-sided outdoor work at distance |
| Greyback | One | 7.6 oz. to 13 oz. | Retractables, pop-ups, X-frames, anything viewed from a few feet away |
| Double-sided blockout | Two, color matched | 8.85 oz. to 20 oz. | Pole banners, free-hanging banners, scrolling and roll-up stands read from both sides |
The names on the site tell you which build you are looking at. Eclipse® marks the black-back grades: Billboard Select Eclipse® FL, Billboard Plus Eclipse®, Billboard 520′ Eclipse® FL and SuperPrint® Economy Eclipse®. GreyBack marks the grey-layer grades. DSS and UltraBlockout® mark the double-sided grades, and those also sit in the Double-Sided category.
Start with one question: how many sides get artwork?
The number of printed faces decides the construction, and nothing else on the job can override it. A double-sided build costs more per square foot because you are buying a second calibrated print surface. If the back of the banner faces a wall, that money is gone.
Work it in this order:
- Two printed faces. Go to the DSS or UltraBlockout® grades. DSS 12 oz. Blockout is the volume choice, and its low-curl, lay-flat formula is why it ends up in pop-up and scrolling banner stands. UltraBlockout® Banner Pro 15 oz. is the step up when the two faces have to match closely at high resolution.
- One printed face, viewed close. Go greyback. SuperSmooth™ PET GreyBack is 13 oz., non-curling, needs no lamination and is available in a matte finish.
- One printed face, viewed from the road. Go black-back. The Eclipse® billboard grades are formulated for single-pass, high-speed printing, which is the point of them.
If the customer has not said, ask before you quote. “Double-sided” on a purchase order and “blockout” on a purchase order are two different requirements, and only one of them is about light.
Weight across the blockout line, and what it actually buys
Opacity does not scale with weight. A 7 oz. black-backed billboard substrate is already fully opaque, and a 20 oz. dual-print banner is not more opaque than a 12 oz. one. Weight buys tear strength, dimensional stability in wind, and enough body to sit flat in hardware. Spec it against how the banner is hung, not against how much light you need stopped.
UltraFlex blockout line
Full opacity starts at 7 oz.
Face weight in oz/yd² across nine representative blockout grades. Every grade shown is specified as opaque.
Source: UltraFlex Systems product pages, read 2026-09-30. Weights as published per product.
Greyback or black-back: which opaque back for one-sided work
Choose by viewing distance. Grey stops light and also stops the shadow of the frame or the hardware behind it showing through as a grey ghost in a light area of the artwork. Black stops light in a frame that is open to daylight on the back.
Greyback options on the line, in ascending weight:
- EcoVantage® Greyback, 7.6 oz/yd² (260 g/m²), 100% PVC-free and phthalate-free, for pop-up displays, banner stands and X-frames indoors or out.
- Bravura™ GreyBack 340, a 340 micron PP and PET film at 11.0 oz/yd², lay-flat with no curl, for high-resolution posters, transit graphics and pop-ups.
- SuperSmooth™ PET GreyBack, 13 oz/yd² (450 g/m²), no lamination required, matte finish, 38″ to 126″ wide.
Two film grades solve the same problem with a white back instead of grey: Bravura™ Display 250 at 250 micron for roll-up systems, and Bravura™ Display 450 at 450 micron for pop-ups. Both are specified as preventing translucency, and both are quick-drying with a bright white point.
The black-back side of the list is billboard territory and it is worth reading for roll length as much as weight. Billboard 520′ Eclipse® FL is 7 oz. on 193″ x 520′ rolls. The other Eclipse® billboard grades run 328′ rolls at 150″ or 196″ wide, against the 164′ that most banner grades ship on. Fewer roll changes per shift is the whole reason those lengths exist. If you are weighing black-back against frontlit for an outdoor job, the comparison is laid out in frontlit vs. backlit banner materials, and the billboard substrate decision in how to choose a billboard vinyl.
Double-sided blockout: two print surfaces and a core that stops the crossover
A double-sided blockout banner is one material with two calibrated print surfaces and an opaque layer between them, so side A does not show through side B. UltraFlex calls this line DSS, and the differences between the grades are surface smoothness, scrim pattern, curl behavior and color gamut, not opacity. All of them are specified for applications requiring complete opacity.
| Grade | Weight | Widths | Why you would pick it |
|---|---|---|---|
| EcoVantage® DSS Blockout | 8.85 oz/yd² | 54″ to 126″ | 100% PVC-free and phthalate-free, for banners, banner stands and POS |
| ProFlex® DSS 12 oz. Blockout | 12 oz/yd² (405 g/m²) | 38″, 54″, 63″ on 750′ rolls | The longest rolls in the DSS line, for repeat retractable and pop-up production |
| DSS 12 oz. Blockout | 12 oz/yd² (410 g/m²) | 38″ to 126″ | The broadest fire listing in the 12 oz class, and the widest width spread |
| DSS 13 oz. Pro Blockout | 13 oz/yd² (375 g/m²) | 38″ to 126″ | Broad color gamut at low ink consumption. No Latex listing. |
| DSS Pro 14 oz. Blockout | 14 oz/yd² (410 g/m²) | 39″ to 80″ | Refined scrim pattern, engineered for high speed and low ink use |
| DSS 15 oz. Blockout | 15 oz. | 38″ to 126″ | Premium dual print surface for resolution on both sides, indoors |
| SuperSmooth™ Blockout | 15 oz/yd² (510 g/m²) | 38″ to 86″ on 98′ rolls | Smooth surface for high-resolution indoor hanging signs. No Latex listing. |
| SuperSmooth™ PET Blockout | 15 oz/yd² (510 g/m²) | 38″ to 126″ | Scrimless, with a PET blockout layer for easier separation in recycling. No Latex listing. |
| UltraBlockout® Banner Pro 15 oz. | 15 oz/yd² (510 g/m²) | 54″ to 126″ | Five flame listings, engineered for high-resolution two-sided printing |
| UltraBlockout® Banner Pro 20 oz. | 20 oz/yd² (680 g/m²) | 126″ | Color-matched dual surfaces for free-hanging indoor and short-term outdoor banners |
Two things in that table decide more quotes than weight does. ProFlex® DSS 12 oz. Blockout ships on 750′ rolls, against 164′ for most of the line, which changes your material change-over time on a repeat retractable program. And SuperSmooth™ Blockout only comes on 98′ rolls, so check yield before you substitute it for a 15 oz. grade on a long run.
Pole banners and free-hanging: where scrim and weight earn their cost
A pole banner is the one blockout application where you should go straight to the heavy end of the line. It is double-sided by definition, it is outdoors, and it is loaded in two directions by wind while fixed at top and bottom.
Pole Banner Blockout is 18 oz/yd² (610 g/m²) with a woven 1000 x 1000 scrim for strength and stability in harsh weather, matte on both faces, and it runs to 196″ wide, the widest in the blockout category. Pole Banner Select is the same 18 oz. weight with a matte finish for indoor or outdoor work. If the specification is PVC-free, EcoVantage® Pole Banner is 11.2 oz/yd² (380 g/m²), phthalate-free, with a scrim fabric for added strength and a coated double-sided print surface.
For a free-hanging indoor banner read from both sides, UltraBlockout® Banner Pro at 15 oz. or 20 oz. is the intended grade. For a banner that has to vent wind rather than resist it, there is a blockout mesh: UltraMesh® Blockout at 12.5 oz/yd² (420 g/m²), printable on both sides, for billboards, exhibits and event signs. Wind rating and airflow are covered in the mesh banner material guide.
Blockout is not only a PVC banner problem
If the job is dye-sublimation or a soft signage frame, the blockout you need is a polyester fabric, not a coated banner. The construction logic is identical and the vocabulary carries over.
- VorTex™ Blockout D252, 8.26 oz/yd² (280 g/m²), a woven polyester with a white, black, white triple-layer build that makes it almost completely opaque. Direct dye-sub, Latex and UV, up to 126″ wide.
- VorTex™ Stretch Eclipse® D250, 7.37 oz/yd², a soft black-back blockout with slight stretch for easier installation, in 126″ and 196″.
- VorTex™ Blizzard T320, 9.5 oz/yd², an all-white blockout with a white back, warp-knitted, crease free, on 328′ rolls at 126″.
- ReSource™ Star Eclipse® D270, 7.6 oz/yd² of 100% GRS-certified recycled polyester with a black back, and ReSource™ Glacier D310, 9 oz. GRS-certified recycled polyester in a white, black, white build.
GRS is the Global Recycled Standard, a Textile Exchange standard covering recycled content plus social, environmental and chemical requirements through the supply chain. When a customer asks for recycled content in writing, that certification is the answer, not a claim. The wider sustainable range sits in recycled banner material.
Check the ink list before you quote, because six grades do not list Latex
Of the 23 products in the Blockout Media category, 17 list Latex compatibility and six do not. The six are DSS 13 oz. Pro Blockout, SuperSmooth™ Blockout, SuperSmooth™ PET Blockout, Billboard Select Eclipse® FL, ProFlex® Billboard Select Eclipse® and SuperPrint® Economy Eclipse®. Those last three are formulated for UV and solvent single-pass billboard production, which is the trade-off you are accepting for the speed.
That matters because “blockout” reads as a single product category on a quote, and a latex shop that substitutes a 15 oz. SuperSmooth™ Blockout for a 15 oz. UltraBlockout® Banner Pro has just changed presses without meaning to. Screen printing has the same trap in reverse: most of the DSS line lists it, the Bravura™ films and the Eclipse® billboard grades largely do not. The published ink list per product is on each product page and consolidated in the technical data sheets.
Which flame certificate the venue will actually ask for
Ask which listing the authority having jurisdiction wants, then pick the grade that carries it. Doing it the other way round is how a banner gets refused at install.
The listings on the UltraFlex blockout grades are not uniform:
- Five listings: the two UltraBlockout® Banner Pro grades list ASTM-E84, Canada ULC, NFPA 701, Title 19/California and CSFM.
- Four listings: DSS 12 oz. Blockout lists Canada ULC, NFPA 701, Title 19/California and CSFM. Pole Banner Blockout lists Canada ULC, NFPA 701, Title 19/CA 1237 and CSFM.
- NFPA 701 only: DSS 15 oz. Blockout, EcoVantage® Greyback, EcoVantage® Pole Banner, SuperSmooth™ PET GreyBack, SuperSmooth™ PET Blockout, Billboard 520′ Eclipse® FL, UltraMesh® Blockout and the ReSource™ and VorTex™ blockout fabrics.
- CSFM only: SuperPrint® Economy Eclipse®.
NFPA 701 is the National Fire Protection Association’s standard method of fire test for flame propagation of textiles and films, and it is the listing most indoor venues name. California adds its own route through the State Fire Marshal, which is what Title 19 and a CSFM registration refer to. ASTM E84 is a surface burning characteristics test, and it comes up on interior wall and ceiling applications rather than hanging banners.
A few product pages show generic entries rather than named standards, so do not read those as equivalent to a listing. Pull the document. UltraFlex publishes them on the Fire Certificates page, and a certificate in the job folder is what ends the conversation on site.
A blockout spec checklist
- Printed faces: one or two. Two means DSS or UltraBlockout®.
- Viewing distance: arm’s length means greyback or a smooth double-sided surface. Roadside means a black-back billboard grade.
- Hanging method: retractable, pole, open frame or free-hang. This sets the weight and whether you need scrim.
- Finished width: most blockout grades top out at 126″. Pole Banner Blockout reaches 196″, and the billboard grades run 150″ to 196″.
- Roll length against run length: 98′, 164′, 328′, 520′ and 750′ all exist on this line. Check yield before substituting a grade.
- Press and ink: confirm Latex, screen or dye-sub is on that product’s list.
- PVC-free or recycled content required? EcoVantage® for PVC-free banner, ReSource™ for GRS-certified recycled polyester.
- Flame listing: get the standard the jurisdiction names, then the certificate.
Before you commit a full roll to a new grade, request a sample and run your own profile on it. If you are still choosing between blockout, frontlit and mesh for the same job, start with how to spec banner material or the vinyl banner rolls buyer’s guide.
Frequently asked questions
What is blockout banner material?
Blockout banner material is a banner substrate built so that light and artwork do not pass through it. UltraFlex produces that in three ways: a black-back layer behind a single print surface, a grey back layer behind a single print surface, and a double-sided build with two matched print surfaces and an opaque core.
Is blockout the same as double-sided?
No. Blockout describes opacity. Double-sided describes having two print surfaces. A black-backed billboard substrate is fully opaque and printable on one side only. If the job needs artwork on both faces, you need a double-sided blockout grade such as DSS 12 oz. Blockout or UltraBlockout® Banner Pro.
What is the difference between greyback and blockout?
Greyback is one way of achieving blockout. A grey layer behind the print surface stops light transmission and stops the hardware behind the banner showing as a shadow through light areas of the artwork. It is specified for close viewing, such as retractable and pop-up displays.
How heavy does a blockout banner need to be?
Opacity is achieved at 7 oz. on this line, so weight is a structural decision. Indoor retractables and pop-ups are served by 8.85 oz. to 15 oz. grades. Outdoor pole banners use 18 oz. with a woven scrim. Free-hanging indoor banners read from both sides use 15 oz. or 20 oz.
Can you print blockout material with latex ink?
Most of it, not all of it. 17 of the 23 products in the UltraFlex Blockout Media category list Latex compatibility. DSS 13 oz. Pro Blockout, SuperSmooth™ Blockout, SuperSmooth™ PET Blockout, Billboard Select Eclipse® FL, ProFlex® Billboard Select Eclipse® and SuperPrint® Economy Eclipse® do not. Check the product page before you schedule the press.
Is there a blockout option for dye-sublimation?
Yes. VorTex™ Blockout D252 is a woven polyester with a white, black, white triple-layer construction, and VorTex™ Stretch Eclipse® D250 is a soft black-back blockout with slight stretch. ReSource™ Star Eclipse® D270 and ReSource™ Glacier D310 are the GRS-certified recycled polyester equivalents.
Is there a PVC-free blockout banner?
Yes. EcoVantage® Greyback at 7.6 oz/yd², EcoVantage® DSS Blockout at 8.85 oz/yd² and EcoVantage® Pole Banner at 11.2 oz/yd² are all specified as 100% PVC-free and phthalate-free.
Getting the grade on your floor
The full range is in the Blockout Media category, with the two-sided grades also grouped under Double-Sided. Specifications, ink compatibility and roll sizes are on each product page and in the technical data sheets. Flame documentation is on the Fire Certificates page.
If you want a grade in your hands before you commit, request a sample. If you would rather describe the job and have it specified for you, contact UltraFlex Systems with the finished size, the number of printed faces, the hanging method, your press and the flame listing you need.