How a plaque is sized to your text

Most name plates are a fixed blank and the text is squeezed onto it. A long name gets small letters, a short name floats in empty space. Ours work the other way round. The letter height is fixed for each design, the plate is generated around your text, and the size you pick sets the limit on characters and the minimum plate width.

That means two things. A short name and a long name on the same design look like a matched set, because the letters are the same height. And the plate is always as wide as the words need, with an even margin.

The rule, in one line

Plate width is the width of your text plus a margin on each side, or the minimum width for the size you chose, whichever is bigger. The text is set in a bold grotesque typeface, and its width depends on the letters: a W is about three times as wide as an I, and a capital is wider than lowercase. That is why the size options count characters but the final width varies.

Desk name plaque

The desk name plaque has 22 mm capital letters, set flush into the face in your letter color, on a 58 mm tall face that leans back twelve degrees. The margin is 16 mm each side. Minimum widths are 150 mm for small, 200 mm for medium and 260 mm for large.

Here is what that gives for a few lengths of text, measured in the typeface we use:

So the width in the size label is the starting point, not a cap. A ten character name on a small plaque comes out wider than the 150 mm minimum, and that is by design: the letters stay 22 mm tall and the margins stay even.

Why flush and not raised? The desk plaque prints face down on a textured build plate, which gives the face a fine even matte finish and makes the letters part of the same solid piece. A face that leans back cannot be printed face up with raised letters.

Wall name plaque

The wall name plaque has 40 mm letters raised 2 mm on an 8 mm plate, 90 mm tall, with a 24 mm margin each side. Standard starts at 300 mm wide and takes up to 12 characters; large starts at 400 mm and takes up to 16. At 40 mm, a ten character name is about 260 to 285 mm of text, so a standard plaque for a full name lands around 310 to 330 mm. Every wall plaque prints as two halves that key together behind the face, because our printer's widest single piece is 280 mm.

Our printer reaches about 280 mm in one piece for a two color plate, so a plate wider than that prints as two halves joined on the back with dovetails, with the seam between letters. From the front you see a hairline at most.

Office door sign

The office door sign has two lines: 18 mm letters on line one and 10 mm on line two, both raised 1.6 mm on a 6 mm plate, 70 mm tall. The plate is at least 220 mm wide, or the longer line plus an 18 mm margin each side. A ten character name on line one is about 120 mm, so most signs stay at 220 mm. A 16 character line one, about 215 mm of text, makes a sign about 250 mm wide.

The width follows the longer line, so a short name over a long title still has even margins.

Number plaque

The number plaque is the one design where the letters can shrink. One or two digits print 120 mm tall, raised 3 mm. Longer numbers would make the plate wider than the printer, so the digits scale down to keep the plate at about 280 mm: four digits come out near 78 mm tall and five near 63 mm. The plate is the digits plus 20 mm each side and 15 mm above and below.

Big digits read from far away. At 120 mm with a high contrast pair like white on black, a house number reads clearly from across most streets. If you want the largest digits for a four digit address, two plaques of two digits each is an option worth considering.

What prints and what does not

Letters, numbers, spaces and basic punctuation: periods, commas, apostrophes, ampersands, hyphens and exclamation marks. No accented characters, symbols, emoji, logos or artwork. We print exactly what you type, including spelling, capitalization and spacing, so read it back before you add it to the cart. Personalized pieces are final sale, and the fit guarantee covers our errors, not typos.

Choosing the size

Count your characters including spaces and periods, then pick the smallest size that takes them. Go up a size only if you want a wider plate for the space it lives in. The office desks and classrooms pages have more on which design suits which spot.