Illuminated Letters

Outdoor signs for business, hospitals, and other organizations often use illuminated letters so that signs are visible at night. Illuminated letters can take many forms, from open neon letters to pan channel letters (where the lighting source is contained within the letter housing.) Sign designers can use many elements to construct the perfect visual branding solution for a particular building or business using illuminated letters, logos, and other shapes. While customers will have many choices to make in terms of letter construction, the most important question is the lighting source used for the letters and how it is to be placed.

Illuminated letters for outdoor signs are lit from front, back, or both, with LED lights or neon bulbs. They can be open faced, have a plastic cover, or be as simple as bare neon tubing. In many cases, where the lighting source is to be placed will determine the overall construction of the illuminated letters. In other words, choosing a front lighted sign will require either open-faced channel letters or channel letters with a translucent plastic cover. On the other hand, backlit signs might require channel letters with a cover made of metal or other solid material. However, the actual lighting source for the illuminated letters must still be decided.

Lighting sources for illuminated letters fall primarily into two categories – neon or LED. Which source is chosen for a particular sign depends on a variety of factors. Using neon as a lighting source for illuminated letters was, at one time, the primary choice. However, because of the gases contained in neon tubing and the expense of repairs, many sign manufacturers do not recommend neon as a lighting source. Signs and illuminated letters using neon are becoming less and less the status quo. The process required to produce neon lighting sources involve custom making each piece of tubing, resulting in a labor-intensive process.

Gaining in popularity over the years, LED lighting has become the sign maker’s lighting source of choice for illuminated letters. Decreased energy usage, less labor-intensive production processes, and better performance in cold weather have encouraged this increase in popularity. Additionally, illuminated letters lighted by an LED source show truer, more vivid colors than their neon counterparts due to LEDs using fewer light frequencies. With these factors in mind, consult local zoning and municipal regulations before making a final decision on the lighting source for illuminated letters. Many local governments and municipalities have chosen to enact regulations that affect sign size and illumination choices.