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Color Clarity
Distance of reading view
will always affect the legibility of your sign and the effective message
understanding of the reader.
Choose colors that, over a
distance provide clarity and opposition to each other so that the
readership is not blurred, suffer color mismatching or illegibility.
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Trade Term:
 Text
Drop
Text drop is when the letters containing a bottom curve are placed
approximately 5% lower than horizontal letters. Enlarging letters
to suit big signs means that when letters do not contain Text
Drop, from a viewing distance, all curve letters appear too small.
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Sign
TIP:
Above
Centre
Signs are
generally produced large. Place all lettering slightly above the
horizontal centre line. This will create a leading area below the
lettering or graphic and assist readership.
The grey lines show actual centre points.
The red line shows the horizontal centre placement for the word
'signs'.
When created at a large size, this above centre placement will
assist the readership of the sign. |
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| Did you
know,
QuickSmart have produced over 5300 different sign projects since 1993 and
have over 30 different process to make signs. If
you are ready to order or need assistance designing signage in Melbourne
or the Eastern states of Australia, please call today on 9543 3000. You
can also price / estimate signage online with our new Instant Online Sign
Pricing
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Sign Sizes, large signs and gigantic signs
When applying lettering for
large signs, it is important that the following principles are used.
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Vector Drawing for signs
See Ezine
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Kerning See Ezine
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Curve radius
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Color Clarity
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Above Centre
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Text Drop
Below shows
the enlargement of Curve radius for Signage.
This image
shows the letter as originally created in a graphics program. Size 20mm
letter.
 Using
a Graphics Program, this letter 'S' was inserted ready for editing
at 20mm high. |
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Select the image and
break apart all node editing points and master control points. |
| Transforming the letter |
 Occasionally,
when you transform a letter from original to Vector, nodes may alter
their programmed positions, curve radius and smooth conditions.
Experienced Sign companies always cross check the curve radius for a
smooth following along the path direction. |
| Enlarging letters for signage. |
| Originally this letter was typed into a graphics
program at 20mm high. When enlarged by factor 8, the image is
beginning to show curve radius problems at the node edit points.
If this letter was manufactured at one metre or more, the
kinks and drops, bumps and irregular curves would be very offputting
to readership.
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| Node Edit |
 Using your
graphics program, alter the node control points to create smooth
flowing directions (in and out). Print out a test sheet or send a
partial file to your plotter to view actual size. When mastering
nodes, you can draw in smaller sizes (to scale eg. 1:25 ) and learn
to evaluate quickly faults in standard font creations. |
| Noticing errors at large signs sizes |
 Fixing
the problem of small to large fonts is a skill most sign companies
employ to serve their clients.
Sign TIP:
Output one letter to actual
production size to cross check Curve Radius Features. |
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Program?
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More on drawing in vector
What is Curve Radius?
Curve radius is the smooth continuation of
a computerised drawing. Nodes should be smooth and flow along the path
direction.
When producing large signs this becomes
critical as the larger the letter, curve or radius, the more pronounced
the node edit point will become.
What are the
benefits of vector drawing?
Vector drawings are scalable, can be drawn
smoothly and sharply.
Vector drawings can be used by many
different industries. Sign manufacture, screen printing, engraving,
plotting, laser cutting, embroidery and clothe stitching, CAD Cam and
automatic sawing. Pixel based images can not easily be enlarged without
losing clarity and output resolution.
VECTOR
Drawn in lines and curves, this image can be enlarged without losing sign
clarity.
PIXEL
Drawn as Bitmap, *.psd, *.tiff, some *.eps, *.jpeg, *.gif or other pixel
formats. As more and more enlarging occurs, the pixels become accentuated
and ugly.
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