Size starts with letter height
We size signs by the height of the letters, not by the overall width. That sounds backwards until you notice that the same letter height gives you a short sign for “Hi” and a long one for “Happily ever after”. Letter height decides how bold the sign feels and how far away it reads; the number of letters decides how wide it ends up.
There are five sizes in the designer, from Small to Statement. The table below shows each letter height and how wide one familiar phrase comes out at every size, measured in the same lettering the designer uses. Your own words will be wider or narrower depending on how many letters they have and which lettering you pick.
Anything wider than 2 m we quote by hand, because big signs need a closer look at how they’re fixed and powered. The designer tells you the moment your words cross that line and suggests a size that fits.
Let the furniture decide
A sign rarely hangs on an empty wall. It goes above a bed, a sofa, a sideboard or a bar, and that piece of furniture is the best ruler you own. A sign that is roughly half to three-quarters the width of the furniture underneath looks deliberate. Smaller than half and it starts to float; wider than the furniture and it competes with it.
- Above a double bed: 80 to 100 cm wide reads well, centred on the headboard.
- Above a three-seat sofa: 100 to 140 cm, with the bottom of the sign a hand’s width or two above the sofa back.
- On a shelf or a bar back: 40 to 60 cm, usually on a table stand so it sits rather than hangs.
- A feature wall or a backdrop: 150 cm and up. This is where Statement lettering earns its name.
The interactive below puts your words on a rendered room at true scale. Pick the sofa, the bed, the bar or the kitchen, slide through the sizes and watch the verdict line change. The person standing beside the furniture is 175 cm tall, so you always have a human to judge by.
How far away will people read it?
Sign makers have an old rule of thumb: every 2.5 cm of letter height reads comfortably from about 3 m away. It is a rule for legibility, not for enjoyment, so think of it as a minimum. A bedroom sign seen from the bed, two or three metres away, is happy at Small or Medium. A sign across a café, or one that has to catch the eye from a doorway, wants Large or more.
Script lettering needs a little more height than block capitals to read at the same distance, because the joins and loops close up from far away. If your sign is mostly for reading rather than for mood, pick a bolder face or step up a size.
One line or two?
Long phrases are often better on two lines. “Good things take time” on one line at Medium is a long, thin sign that suits a sideboard; on two lines it becomes a compact block that suits the space above a bed. Two lines also let you go up a size without the width running away from you.
You can have up to three lines of 24 characters each. If a line gets too long, the designer warns you before anything is cut off and offers to split it for you at the last space, so a word is never broken in half.
Symbols, hearts and rings
A heart, a ring or a champagne glass adds height as well as charm. Placed above the words, a symbol makes the sign taller; placed inline, it makes it wider. The designer shows the extra height or width next to each symbol, along with any change in price, so you know exactly what you’re adding before you add it.
A quick sizing checklist
- Measure the furniture or the wall space the sign will live above.
- Aim for half to three-quarters of that width.
- Check how far away it will mostly be seen from, and step up a size if that distance is more than a few metres.
- Try your words on one line and on two in the designer, and compare the width each gives you.
- Tape the outline on the wall before you order.
When you order, we send a proof drawing within 12 hours showing the exact width and height of your sign. If it looks wrong on paper, changing the size costs nothing at that stage.