Where a decal can go on a car

Start with the windshield

In all four codes we read, the windshield is the strictest glass on the car. California allows signs and stickers there only inside small squares in two lower corners. Texas exempts a sunscreening strip at the top, and the section we read has no exception for stickers. Florida allows only a short list of items, such as papers the law requires, a transparent sunscreening strip, toll devices and GPS devices. New York prohibits stickers on windshields other than those its commissioner authorizes.

A decorative decal has no place on the windshield in three of the four states, and only a corner square in the fourth. Keep ours off the windshield altogether.

California

California Vehicle Code §26708 opens with a general bar: you may not drive with any object or material placed, displayed, installed, affixed or applied on the windshield or the side or rear windows. The exceptions are where a decal can live.

Signs and stickers may sit in a seven-inch square in the lower corner of the windshield or of the rear window farthest from the driver, or in a five-inch square in the lower corner of the windshield nearest the driver. Side windows behind the driver are exempt. And the rear window as a whole is exempt if the car has outside mirrors on both sides, each showing the driver at least 200 feet of the road behind. Without both mirrors, the rear window exceptions we read come down to that seven-inch corner square.

Texas

Texas Transportation Code §547.613 makes it a misdemeanor to drive with an object or material on the windshield or a side or rear window that obstructs or reduces the driver's clear view. The section then lists what it does not cover.

Two exceptions matter for decals. A side window to the rear of the driver is exempt, and so is the rear window, if the car has an outside mirror on each side that shows the driver at least 200 feet of the road behind. The windshield exception covers only a sunscreening strip at the top, reaching no lower than the AS-1 line or five inches from the top, whichever is closer to the top. The section also lists vehicles not registered in Texas among its exceptions.

Florida

Florida spreads its rules over three sections. §316.2952 allows nothing on the windshield except listed items: a certificate or paper the law requires, a transparent sunscreening strip at the top that stays out of the driver's direct forward view, toll devices and GPS devices. A violation is a noncriminal traffic infraction.

§316.2954 allows a rear window made nontransparent by any material only if the car has side mirrors on both sides. And §316.2004 bars any sign, poster or other nontransparent material on the windshield, side wings, or side or rear windows that materially obstructs, obscures or impairs the driver's clear view of the road. A decal on the side glass behind you is held to that last test.

New York

New York Vehicle and Traffic Law §375 is the strictest of the four on the rear window. It prohibits posters or stickers on windshields or rear windows other than those the commissioner authorizes. A ticket under that clause, the law says, is issued only when there is reasonable cause to believe the driver has broken another state law as well, but the prohibition itself stands.

The same section bars signs and nontransparent material, other than certificates the law requires, on the windshield and on the side windows beside or ahead of the driver's seat. The sections we read do not name the side windows behind the driver. Paint and bumpers are not windows, and none of the sections we read covers them.

The four states side by side

The table puts the three places a decal is most likely to go next to each other. It summarizes the sections listed under Sources, and the full text is always the one to rely on.

Summaries of the sections listed under Sources, as read on October 8, 2026.

If your state is not here

We read four codes, not fifty, and we will not guess at the rest. If your car is registered somewhere else, read your own state's vehicle code on its legislature's website, and look for the sections on windshields, windows and an obstructed view. The four we read differ from each other, so a rule from one state tells you nothing certain about the next. A corner square that California allows does not carry over to any other state.

Two points held in every code we read. The windshield is the strictest glass on the car. And a rear window decal depends on your mirrors in three of the four states and on state authorization in the fourth.

If the window is out, there is still room for a design. Our laptop and toolbox decals and tumbler decals suit a lid, a toolbox or a cup rather than glass.

The long banners in the Ranger Pro design library run along the bottom of a rear window, so read your state's mirror rule before you choose one of our rear window decals. When you have the spot, how to apply a vinyl decal takes it from there.