On the side it will be read from. Our regular stickers have the print on the front and the adhesive on the back, so a sticker faces whoever is on the side of the glass it's stuck to. For a sign people read from the street, that's the outside of the window.
Reading it from outside
There are three ways to do it:
- A sticker on the outside of the glass, facing out. Glass is the easiest surface a sticker meets, and our laminated vinyl is weatherproof, lasting 3 to 5 years outdoors before the print starts to fade.
- Window Cling on the inside, facing out. It has no adhesive and holds by static, out of reach of weather and hands, and it comes down and goes back up as often as you like. Tell us which side of the glass it goes on, and we set the artwork up the right way around. See how Window Cling works.
- A reverse-printed sticker on the inside, facing out. The adhesive is on the front, so it sticks to the inside of the glass and reads through it from outside, out of the weather. We make them, and their product page is coming, so contact us to order one for now. See things to ask us about.
A regular sticker stuck to the inside of the glass faces into the room. From outside you'd see its back: plain white on white vinyl, or your design reversed through a clear one.
Clear or white on glass
White vinyl reads as a solid shape in true colors on any glass. Clear Stickers look printed onto the glass, but without white ink behind them, their colors are see-through, like stained glass, and on dark or tinted glass they can all but disappear. Where the white ink goes is the main decision on a clear window sticker. See clear or white vinyl and do clear stickers need white ink?
Putting it on
Clean the glass with isopropyl alcohol and let it dry. Don't use glass cleaner, which can leave a film that keeps the adhesive from gripping. Larger decals go on most easily with wet application, and glass is the ideal surface for it; see how to apply a sticker so it stays on. In winter, cold glass fogs and frosts, so warm it first.
Frosted, etched, and textured privacy glass is rough. Stickers grip it poorly, and Window Cling can't cling to it at all.
Taking it off
Glass is the easiest surface to clean up. Warm the sticker, peel it slowly, scrape any leftover adhesive with a plastic blade, and finish with isopropyl alcohol. Never scrape across a car's rear-window defroster lines or over window tint film. Full steps are in how to remove a sticker cleanly, and car windows have their own notes in stickers on cars.