"Regional Supply has released a new article for sign makers and sign manufacturers by Matt Charboneau on choosing fonts for award-winning signs. Mr. Charboneau is the owner and operator of Charboneau Signs. Read the full article here (http://www.regionalsupplyblog.com/2013/05/01/designing-award-winning-signs-finding-your-font-sign-digital-graphics/) Related Keywords: sign supplies, sign supply, regional supply, vinyl supplies"

1. Designing Award-Winning Signs:
Finding Your Font
Written By: Matt Charboneau

2. Sign makers need to go beyond the traditional font selection process
followed by traditional graphic design, marketing, and advertising
firms; they must also take into consideration the constructability of a
font while choosing the best font for a project.

3. With the thousands of fonts at
our disposal today, it's important for
sign-makers to pay special attention
to stroke width and serif size
in the selection process.

4. Go Beyond Traditional Graphic Design
It's an impossible number to know for sure, but it's estimated that the number
of available fonts is in excess of 250,000.
With such a high level of variety and selection, the sign designer is often
presented with fonts that have been chosen by print media designers for the
simple reason of “looking cool” with no regard for the constructability of the
typeface.
Stroke width and serif size are often ignored by print media designers because
they have no real effect on the final product they give to their
customer—unless, of course, it’s a sign design.

5. A critical step in choosing a font
is to calculate and identify the narrowest
strokes of the letter, and provide the fabricator
a stroke width thatʼs just wide enough
to get their fingers, tools and lighting
components in.

6. Letter Stroke
The best way to really understand these challenges is through hands-on
experience by helping to build a couple of channel letters. In this way, the
designer will have a better understanding of what it takes to build a channel
letter, and how adding just a quarter of an inch to a letter stroke can make a
difference in how fast it’s fabricated.
In most cases the sign designer must manually adjust the letter stroke in order
to provide adequate space within the stroke for fingers and tools. One of the
easiest and fastest methods of widening a stroke is to add a uniform outline to
the entire letter. “Fattening” the letter can sometimes ruin the appearance of
the font so much that the letter loses its signature appearance.

7. There are two main steps to adjust the letter stroke in order to
provide adequate space within the stroke for fingers and tools.
Step 1: The process of manually widening the stroke is done through node
editing. First, convert your letter to curves, then, use your node editing tools to
move each node the appropriate distance to provide a wider stroke, or a larger
serif.
Step 2: For this example, imagine you are working in Coreldraw. Select both of
the nodes you want to move and then give the nodes an attribute. That
attribute is set by using the Shape Tool. Then select the Straight Line attribute
so that you can move it to where you want it to be without affecting the other
nodes in the letter. As you are working in scale and have marked the desired
stroke width by placing a red line box behind the stroke, now bring the stroke
lines out so they line up directly over the rectangle you have drawn. In this way
you now know that the stroke is at the appropriate width for fabricating a
channel letter.

8. If you are designing a neon channel letter,
the minimum stroke clearance needed is much wider
than what is required for a LED illumination, both of
which are dictated by Underwriters Laboratory (UL).

9. Neon Channel Letters Require Wider Stroke
The best way to remember this is to actually watch the fabricators assemble a
traditional neon letter and an LED letter.
Watch how the narrow stroke poses challenges in assembly of the tube
supports and the wiring of the double-backs and boots, as well as fitting that
piece of 15mm glass tubing inside there, too. It gets crowded pretty quickly and
it is wise to be familiar with UL Standard 48 for channel letters.
All in all, there has to be enough “wrench room” to assemble the letter, with
adequate clearances for fingers, calk guns, illumination and wiring.

10. Since sign-makers have to be aware of font size while selecting the
ideal font for a project, the most important thing to remember when
selecting a font for a channel letter sign, or when being presented a
logo design that needs to be created as a channel letter sign, is to
check the width of the narrowest stroke, and verify that the serifs
are of proper size for your fabrication capabilities. This one
frequently overlooked step should become a regular item that you
verify on every job you design.

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www.RegionalSupplyBlog.com/2013/05/01/designing-award-
winning-signs-finding-your-font-sign-digital-graphics/