Hobbyist - I was enjoying the government manual from 1983 until they got into Rainman-level math equations and such. Where the heck did you find that?
Your other link about dimensional signage was pretty interesting, thank you. Saved for reference.
Found another forum thread from 2019 with some specific information about material thickness:
https://www.signs101.com/threads/dimensional-letters-outside-thickness-material.154808/
James Burke made a post about west-facing letters he did, and went with 1/2" thick bronze. One of the jobs I'm bidding for is a west-facing wall 15 feet up, and I want to give the customer a couple options to compare costs.
Another question: Are there any pros/cons regarding flat cut acrylic that is pigmented vs painted? Using Gemini as an example, I don't see a price difference between the two, other than a minor upcharge for painting Pantone matches. Is there any difference in the appearance of outdoor acrylic that's pigmented vs painted, after years in the elements?
I am flattered, that you might presume I have some knowledge on this topic, based on my previous responses.
I really do not. I just went in search of information that does not require me to reinvent the wheel. People have already done studies to try to determine the best READABILITY guesstimates for various letters based on size, color and contrast, FONT (Type Face) etc.
The government DATA is typical of the source, full of complex formulas and charts and schedules, but it does not really answer the simple question in the end. However, you can be assured that the DATA probably cost a fortune to publish.
Oddly, I did NOT find any helpful information about
the readability of text from an angle, such as looking up at extruded lettering mounted high over your head. All of the sign readability studies seem to focus on SIZE AT DISTANCE and COLOR CONTRAST, etc. looking straight at the alphanumeric characters.
What little I know about signage can be summed up by watching the old Westerns on TV.
A sign MUST convey it's message message in a flash. People are not going to stop to read the sign, to determine the nature of the business behind it. This is why every small town in the Old West used
simple signs that clearly and immediately tell the casual observer exactly WHAT business is conducted there...
SALOON ... BANK ... LIVERY ... HOTEL ... CASINO ... UNDERTAKER ... BLACKSMITH ... SCHOOL ... DOCTOR ... CEMETERY ...
I don't know when signs began to become more descriptive. A business may have a clever name, and even a catchy LOGO, but if people don't IMMEDIATELY know what the business is, they will not remember it, and they probably will not make a note of it.
Example: You have Lowe's, and Home Depot, and Ace Hardware, and Mailboxes, ETC., and a dozen other places in your town where you can probably have a copy of a key made, right? But if I were to ask you,
"Where can I go to get a copy of a key made?" your mind is immediately going to pull up the image of that old FOTOMAT BOOTH on the corner, the one with the MASSIVE SIGNS on all four sides that read,
"KEYS" with the old retired locksmith sitting inside. You will not be able to tell me the name of the business, or the name of the owner, or even the address. You will only say, "go to that bright blue booth structure in the parking lot across from the CVS..." Your mind made a note of the place that makes KEYS, but the other details are sketchy.
When you roll into a town and you have a taste for Mexican food, you don't look for a sign that reads, "Mama Gonzales's Authentic South-of-the-Border Mexican Cuisine" You pull into the parking lot of the place that has a huge TACOS - BURRITOS sign. Our brains are wired that way.
I have lived here over ten years. So as it happened, I had an ingrown toenail that was killing me. I do not have a regular doctor, or even health insurance. I instinctively drove to the place where I had seen the sign that reads,
"URGENT CARE CLINIC" but they did not offer this particular service. The NAME of the place was FAST PACE but I never caught that.
They referred me to a walk-in medical clinic in Bowling Green. I looked up the address and drove up there. I SWEAR I had driven past this place at least a few hundred times over the years, but I NEVER made a mental note of it being a
"Doc-In-The Box" Oh sure, the building was beautiful. The parking lot was expansive. The trees and bushes around the place were all manicured. But all of this time, I had ASSUMED it was either a CONVALESCENT HOME or a SENIOR LIVING CENTER, or maybe a high end HEALTH SPA. The huge sign with the fancy script font and the LOGO gave little indication of it being a full service WALK-IN medical facility! If I had to send someone to a place in an emergency, this place would NEVER have entered my mind.
So the moral of this wordy post is that, any sign is only a good sign if it makes an immediate and lasting impression on the observer.
Tell me something ... What is the
NAME of the business in your town, where you go to get
APPLIANCE REPAIR? Chances are, you don't know the name of the business, regardless of how fancy the sign is, or how snazzy the LOGO is. But you do know that this is where you will take your broken vacuum cleaner.
After a long drive, when you are nodding off and fighting the fatigue, you are not looking for a colorful sign that reads, "Free Continental Breakfast" or "Free HBO in Every Room" You are looking for
HOTEL or
MOTEL.
Joe
.
