Printed perforated window film that reads as a full-colour graphic from the street and still lets you see out from inside. Printed, laminated and cut to your glass sizes at our Ravenhall workshop.
One way vision is a printed vinyl with thousands of small holes punched right through it. The graphic prints on the white face, the holes stay open, and the back of the film is black. From outside you read the artwork. From inside your eye follows the light through the holes instead. It goes on the outside of the glass and peels off cleanly later.
Made by Melbourne Trade Signs, a large-format print and signage company on Unit 6/43 Orbis Drive, Ravenhall VIC 3023, in Melbourne’s west. Printed in-house and installed Australia-wide. Phone 0415 743 691.
The effect lives or dies on light. It works while the outside is brighter than the inside, which covers daylight hours on a shopfront or a vehicle. After dark, with the lights on inside, it reverses: people see in and staff see very little. The view out is grey and slightly grainy. If a clear view matters more than the graphic, frosted film or cut lettering suits better.
We print it in Ravenhall, on Orbis Drive in Melbourne’s west, and laminate every panel with optically clear film before it leaves the bench. Nothing is brokered out. There is no minimum, so one van window is a job and a forty-store rollout is a job. Our crews install here and interstate, or we cut to your measurements and send the panels flat.
Perforation is the number that changes how the film behaves. The ratio tells you how much of the surface is still vinyl and how much of it is open hole.
| Perforation | Open area | Image density | View from inside |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50/50 | About half | Softer, lighter colours | The most open, best daylight view |
| 60/40 | Around 40 per cent | Good density, the usual pick | Clear enough for a staffed shopfront |
| 70/30 | Around 30 per cent | Close to a solid print | Gauzy and restricted |
| Hole size | Typically 1.5–1.6 mm | Smaller holes hold detail better | Barely changes the view |
| Clear overlaminate | Unchanged | Deeper blacks, more contrast | Same view, easier to clean |
| Solid vinyl | None | Full colour, blocks light | No view out at all |
Measure the visible glass, not the frame, and flag anything unusual: curved rear glass, a heating element with wires across it, opening vents, sensors or a wiper arm.
Most jobs come down to three calls: how open the perforation is, whether the glass is flat or curved, and how much of the pane actually gets covered.
The default for shopfronts and vehicle rear glass. Forty per cent of the surface is open, which keeps a usable view out while the print still carries strong colour and readable type from across a footpath. Start here if you are unsure which way to go.
Half open, so the view out is noticeably better and the room behind feels brighter. The trade-off is a softer graphic: fine type loses crispness and dark colours look a shade washed. Worth it where staff sit right against the glass all day.
A clear film over the print that does not block the holes. It stops the ink abrading, deepens the colours and keeps grime out of the perforations, which is why cheap one way vision looks tired early. Standard on anything outdoors here.
Vehicle rear windows are rarely flat. Cast perforated film is more conformable and holds its shape once heated into a curve, so it is less likely to lift at the corners later. Calendered film is fine on flat shop glass and costs less.
Where the outside face cannot be worked on, there is a version made to go on the inside with the image reversed. It looks slightly less punchy in daylight and needs clean, dry interior glass, but it solves upper-level and security-screen access problems.
Handles, card readers, sensors and opening panes get cut around at artwork stage, not trimmed on site with a blade. We keep the cut files, so a seasonal reprint drops onto the same panes and the old film comes off in the same visit.
Retailers hand the whole window over to a campaign without turning the shop into a cave. Staff keep their view of the street, the interior keeps its daylight, and the graphic still stops people walking past. For chains we print every store in one run, label each panel by site and pane number, and send crews out state by state.
Rear glass is the one panel you can print edge to edge without covering a window. Trades and couriers use it for a phone number and a trade sized to be read from the car behind. Coverage of rear glass is a roadworthiness question in Victoria and depends on the vehicle and its mirrors, so check the current requirements before we cut.
Offices on a footpath get an awkward mix of glare and passers-by looking straight at desks. A band of film at seated eye height fixes the privacy without dimming the room, and it doubles as somewhere to put the company name and a phone number. Common in medical suites, agencies, small studios and co-working floors along the main roads through the west.
An empty shop looks better with a graphic than with butcher’s paper, and trades working inside can still see out to the street while a fit-out runs. Agents use it to advertise leasing while a space sits dark, builders put it on site office windows, and developers use it on display suite glass where the sales team still wants a view.
Perforated film swallows fine detail, so artwork that works on a poster does not always survive it. Send what you have and we will say honestly whether it needs simplifying first.
A logo and a rough idea of what the window should say is enough to start. Setting the artwork up is part of the job here, not a separate line on the quote.
Print, laminate and cut all happen in our own workshop, so we are scheduling our own queue. Tell us the date the window has to be live and we will say straight away whether it is achievable. Pickup from Ravenhall Monday to Friday, delivery metro and regional Victoria, freight interstate. Where our crews install, the fit gets booked with the print.
Yes, but it is a filtered view rather than a clear one. Looking out feels like looking through a fine mesh screen: people, traffic and movement are obvious, fine detail is not.
The more open the perforation, the better the view. It also cuts glare and knocks back direct sun, which most staff working against a west-facing window count as a bonus.
It depends on the vehicle, and it is worth checking first. Covering rear glass is treated as a roadworthiness matter in Victoria, and what is allowed generally hinges on the mirrors fitted and how much of the driver’s view is affected.
Rules also differ between cars, vans and heavy vehicles. Check the current roadworthy requirements or ask your mechanic, and we will cut to whatever coverage you confirm.
The numbers describe how much of the film is solid versus open. More holes means a better view out and a weaker image. Fewer holes means a punchier graphic and a dimmer, greyer view.
Retail campaigns where the picture is the point usually run 60/40. Offices and vehicles where people look out all day often prefer 50/50. We can print a small piece of each to compare on the actual glass.
Outside, print facing out, in almost every case. That is how the black backing stops interior light bouncing back through the holes and washing the effect out.
A purpose-made inside-mount product exists with the image reversed, for glass behind security screens or above ground level. Tell us which face before we print, because the artwork is mirrored for one and not the other.
Gently, and never with a scraper. Warm water, a soft cloth or soft brush and a mild detergent handle street grime. Wipe across the panel rather than picking at the edges.
Keep pressure washers well back and away from edges entirely. On vehicles, skip the automatic brush wash and hand wash instead. The clear overlaminate does most of the protecting, which is exactly why we fit it.
Laminated and fitted properly, typically three to five years outdoors, depending on sun exposure, which way the glass faces and how often it is washed. A west-facing shopfront fades well before a shaded southern aspect.
Unlaminated film is another story: dirt collects in the holes and the print scuffs within a year. Most campaign graphics get changed long before the film reaches the end of its life anyway.
Printed and cut decals for shop glass, including reverse-printed pieces read from the footpath. The usual companion to a perforated window band on the same shopfront.
See the detail →Etch-effect film that obscures the view while daylight still comes through. The answer when you want quietly private glass rather than a printed graphic facing the street.
See the detail →Cut letters with no background at all, applied straight to glass. Usually ordered for trading hours, phone numbers and door details alongside a full-window graphic.
See the detail →Browse the full list on our A–Z of everything we print, or see how this fits into signage in Melbourne.
Send us the pane sizes or a photo with a tape measure in it. We will come back with a quote inside two business hours.