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Is Your Signage Failing to Use the Right Letter Size?
How can you make absolutely certain your audience won't have to squint to read the lettering on your new signage?
We are constantly bombarded with advertising messages every single day, including signs. So it takes a conscious effort to really stand out and get noticed.
If the letters on your sign are too small, there's a good chance your message will go completely unnoticed — which isn't exactly good for business!
So how do you figure out what size letters you should be using?
Unfortunately, most people go about this the wrong way by choosing the size of their first … and then forcing the lettering to fit the sign.
For example, when you use our SignMagic Online Center, you can choose virtually any size sign you want.
But if you choose the size of your sign first — and then force your lettering to fit the sign — your letters could end up being waaaaaaaay too small.
However, if you want your letters to be sized professionally, just do the exact opposite. That's right! Just size your letters first to the correct height.
And then adjust the size of your sign to fit the text and layout.
But what is the correct height? How tall should your letters be on your particular sign?
To help you choose the right size lettering, we have developed a handy Online Letter Sizing Calculator.
This Letter Sizing Calculator uses formulas based on a joint research project regarding letter visibility by:
- Penn State University
- The Pennsylvania Transportation Institute
- And the United States Sign Council (USSC)
In other words, there's no need to guess at sizes anymore!
For example, let's suppose you want your message to be legible up to 100 feet away.
All you have to do is type 100 in the letter sizing calculator and instantly, you'll see the minimum sizes recommended.
But what if you already have a certain size letter in mind and want to see how far away your audience will be able to read it? Then this second calculator will show you the answer. For example, let's suppose you want to know the viewing distance of a 12 inch letter.
Just choose the letter size from the drop down list and you will instantly see the range from 120' all the way up to 525 feet for those with perfect 20/20 vision.
Now here's the really cool sizing calculator for signs going out by the road! This calculator takes speed into account.
For example, let's suppose the speed limit on your street is 45 miles per hour.
In this example, you want your message to be readable by passing motorists for at least 3.5 seconds.
You'll instantly see that you need at least 7" tall letters or for easy readability, 23" tall letters.
This 231 feet total viewable distance is a reference point calculated from the rate of speed and the number of seconds you select.
Now you no longer have to wonder whether or not your lettering is going to be big enough.
So how do you use this information to design your new signage?
Well, when you add text to SignMagic, the text tool will automatically show you the sizes.
Here's how it works!
Let's say our Letter Sizing Calculator has already shown us our sign needs at least 6" tall letters for easy readability. In our SignMagic Online Design Center, our text tool will automatically show you the overall size of your lettering.
When you are ready to start your design, just click on "Add Text."
In this case, we'll just type in one line of text at a time by clicking inside of this text edit box on the left side and replacing the default message with our own.
Let's start with just a single letter like the letter "a". When you type in this letter, this number on the left side shows you the OVERALL height of this lower case "a". Since we need a minimum 6 inch size, we want to make sure all of our lower case letters meet or exceed this minimum size.
So we'll just click and drag the corner here until the overall height reads at least 6".
Once you have met your minimum size requirements, you can type in the rest of your message.
When you add capital letters, the overall size shown is larger. In this case, the capital letters are 8 1/4" tall.
Now here's where it gets interesting! When you add letters that descend below the baseline like a "g" or a "p", the overall size shown will automatically adjust. As you can see, the size now shows an overall height of 10.25" tall, but the lower case letters are still the original 6" size.
If your text is too large to fit the space you started with, you can adjust the length of your text without affecting the height. Just don't adjust TOO much or the lettering will be too hard to read!
If the size of your sign is still too small, just click anywhere on the background to unselect the text and you can increase the size of your sign to fit the right size letters.
If you have any questions about how to use the sizing calculator or how to size your letters in SignMagic, just let me know and I'll be happy to help you!
Here's the rest of the story nobody is telling you…
Lots of sign companies post letter visibility charts like this on their websites. However, there are 3 things to keep in mind regarding these size recommendations that nobody else is telling you.
When the letter visibility research project was conducted, it was conducted under ideal conditions. For research purposes, the study was performed
1. Under ideal lighting conditions
2. The participants had perfect, 20/20 vision
3. And the stark black letters on a white background provided ideal contrasting colors.
In the real world, conditions like this are rarely ideal. So the minimum letter size recommendations generated by this research are just that — the bare minimum.
For added advertising value and visual impact, we recommend choosing sizes well above the minimum range because it really does take a conscious effort to stand out and get noticed these days!
Let's recap!
1. Determine what size letters you need using our letter sizing calculator as a guide
2. Make sure the sizes of your letters meet or exceed the minimum size recommendations
3. And then adjust the overall size of your sign as needed to comfortably fit your text and any artwork included in the design.
As always, if you need any assistance, just let us know!