Dimensional Sign Letters

Dimensional Sign Letters

What are Dimensional Sign Letters?

Dimensional sign letters are individually cut 3D letters — usually acrylic, metal, or wood — that mount to a wall either flush or raised on spacers for a floating effect. Flat cut letters range from 1/16" to 1" thick, while layered acrylic, layered MDF, and channel letters run 1" to 5" and beyond.

At ArtSigns, we design and manufacture dimensional letters at our shop in Hamilton, Ontario, and ship throughout Canada and the USA — with qualifying US orders covered under CUSMA and free from import duties. Every sign arrives with an easy installation kit in the box. Show us your logo and we'll recommend the best depth, material, and finish for the space it's going in.

Below is everything that goes into a dimensional sign — depth, material, and finish — so you know exactly what you're choosing and why.

If you're a designer or want to take part in the sign design process, feel free to draw on this information when discussing your sign idea with us.

Types of Dimensional Letters

Dimen­sion­al let­ters are made using two dif­fer­ent meth­ods of production.

1. Flat Cut­ting (CNC)

2. Chan­nel Let­ter Forming

1. Flat Cut Letters

Flat cut let­ters are CNC (Com­put­er Numer­i­cal Con­trol) cut using a com­put­er con­trolled machine with a laser, water jet or router bit attachment.

2. Fab­ri­cat­ed Chan­nel Letters

Chan­nel let­ters are met­al or plas­tic signs made of bent chan­nels that are glued or weld­ed into cus­tom shaped let­ters or symbols.

3D Letters 101

How do 3D let­ters work? What type of mate­r­i­al do you use, what col­or should the let­ters be, what are my options? 

There are 3 Main options when mak­ing dimen­sion­al signs:

1. Depth

2. Mate­r­i­al

3. Fin­ish

We will go into these in fur­ther detail below.

Sign Depth (Thickness)

Flat cut mate­ri­als nor­mal­ly range in depth from 1⁄16″ to 1″. It’s best to choose your let­ter­ing depth based on the size of the let­ter­ing and how they’re going to be used.

For exam­ple, thin­ner let­ters mount­ed flush with the wall work bet­ter for high traf­fic areas like desks and hall­ways. Thin­ner let­ters have a low­er pro­file and don’t get in the way.

On the oth­er hand, less fre­quent­ed areas like walls behind recep­tion desks are more pro­tect­ed and can allow for indi­vid­u­al­ly cut let­ter­ing raised off the wall on pegs for an addi­tion­al float­ing effect.

Most com­mon flat cut mate­r­i­al depths along with their best use cases:

1/4” (Quarter Inch) Depth

Ide­al if you are on a bud­get or for sub­head­ings and sec­ondary infor­ma­tion. We usu­al­ly cut this depth with an adhe­sive sticky back to allow the sign to be eas­i­ly adhered to the wall.

Acrylic letter sign with quarter inch letters painted to match and adhered directly to the wall.

Exam­ple of ¼” acrylic cut-out let­ter sign mount­ed flush or direct­ly to the wall.

1/2” (Half Inch) Depth

Our most pop­u­lar depth for 3D raised let­ters. This Depth can be raised on spac­ers (small peg mounts) for an addi­tion­al float­ing effect or direct­ly to the wall on dou­ble sided tape. Pro­vides a sub­stan­tial look and feel.

Acrylic letter sign with half inch thick letters painted to match and adhered directly to the wall.

Exam­ple of ½” acrylic cut-out let­ter sign mount­ed flush or direct­ly to the wall.

3/4” (Three Quarter Inch) Depth

Excel­lent for when you need a beefi­er, bold­er look.

1” (One Inch) Depth

Per­fect for a very bold look. Usu­al­ly the max depth for flat cut materials.

Fit Foodie Express sign made from 1-inch-thick glossy white acrylic dimensional letters with clear mounting hardware.

Close-up view of the Fit Food­ie Express cus­tom dimen­sion­al sign fea­tur­ing sub­stan­tial 1‑inch-thick glossy white acrylic let­ters. The pol­ished acrylic faces and deep dimen­sion­al con­struc­tion cre­ate a pre­mi­um appear­ance, while clear mount­ing hard­ware pro­vides spac­ing for a pro­fes­sion­al raised installation.

How far are they raised off the wall?

Anoth­er ques­tion relat­ed to mate­r­i­al depth is how far the let­ters stick off the wall. Mean­ing how far are the dimen­sion­al let­ters spaced off the wall on mounts, pegs, rods, or spacers.

In most cas­es, we raise our signs off the wall on 1⁄2″ spac­ers. Rais­ing the indi­vid­u­al­ly cut let­ters gives them an added float­ing or hov­er­ing effect that makes them appear more 3 dimensional.

Depend­ing on your light­ing, rais­ing your sign on 1⁄2″ mounts will also cast a shad­ow. The shad­ow effect can be increased or decreased by adjust­ing your lighting.

Although the aver­age spac­er depth is 1⁄2″, we can also accom­mo­date requests for cus­tom spac­er depths such as 1⁄4″, 3⁄4″, 2″, 5″ or any oth­er depth.

Cer­tain wall types, such as ledge stone or irreg­u­lar pat­terned walls may require the dimen­sion­al let­ters to be raised at var­i­ous depths. In this case we usu­al­ly include thread­ed rods with no set spac­er depth and the height of the let­ters off the wall can be adjust­ed man­u­al­ly, ensur­ing the let­ters are level.

When dimen­sion­al let­ters are flush mount­ed with sticky back or dou­ble sided tape, then they will only raise off the wall by the depth of the let­ters them­selves because the tape itself does not have much thick­ness to it.

Materials

Acrylic

Our most com­mon­ly used mate­r­i­al for mak­ing indi­vid­u­al­ly cut 3D let­ters and sym­bols is acrylic which we cut using an indus­tri­al CNC laser cutter.

Acrylic is a type of high grade plas­tic. It’s a mate­r­i­al that can be clear, frost­ed, pig­ment­ed, or used with films and lam­i­nates to pro­duce end­less fin­ish options.

We use acrylic because it is ver­sa­tile, high qual­i­ty, and very durable. Most impor­tant­ly, acrylic can be laser cut. 

Because acrylic can be laser cut, it allows us to get very cre­ative when mak­ing 3D let­ters and logos. Laser cut­ting allows us to make very com­pli­cat­ed logos in a num­ber of impres­sive look­ing col­ors and finishes.

Acrylic can be lam­i­nat­ed with com­plex prints, cus­tom films, brushed met­al and mir­rored or chrome fin­ish­es to make very high end and high­ly cus­tomiz­able 3D logos.

We often com­bine acrylic with brushed sil­ver or chrome mir­ror fin­ish­es and paint the pre­cise, laser cut edges to match the sur­face of the mate­r­i­al. This allows us to achieve the look of high end met­al fin­ish­es with­out using heavy and expen­sive real met­al fin­ish­es. The major­i­ty of the met­al look­ing signs in our exam­ple gallery are made using this finish. 

We call brushed sil­ver lam­i­nat­ed acrylic fin­ish­es: brushed met­al substitute.

Met­al

We can use the fol­low­ing types of met­al for dimen­sion­al signs:

  • Alu­minum
  • Stain­less Steel
  • Brass
  • Bronze
  • Cop­per

We have acrylic based, ​“brushed met­al sub­sti­tutes” for all met­al options. These acrylic based metal­lic fin­ish­es are com­mon­ly pre­ferred because they are more cost effec­tive, involve more pre­cise laser cut man­u­fac­tur­ing tech­niques and often pro­duce a clean­er, sharp­er logo.

Tra­di­tion­al flat cut met­al is often used for dimen­sion­al let­ters and signs in cas­es where more cost-effec­tive acrylic based, brushed met­al sub­sti­tutes can­not be used such as out­doors or in spe­cif­ic envi­ron­ments requir­ing a cer­tain met­al finish.

Wood

We can use a num­ber of wood fin­ish­es for dimen­sion­al let­ters and signs:

  • Raw wood
  • Stained wood
  • Raw MDF
  • Paint­ed MDF

Wood is laser cut to make wood­en dimen­sion­al let­ters and logos. Any part of the wood that is cut will have a dark burnt edge. This edge can either be left nat­u­ral­ly dark or addi­tion­al­ly it can be stained or paint­ed a cus­tom color.

Wood can also be laser engraved or etched. Details that are laser etched will nat­u­ral­ly come out dark and burnt. We con­trol the lev­el of dark­ness based on how much pow­er we use to laser etch the design. The etched design can either be light or very dark depend­ing on the look you pre­fer. The dark­er the image, the deep­er the engrav­ing will be.

We also use laser cut wood for dimen­sion­al let­ters requir­ing cus­tom cer­tain fin­ish­es such as faux rust.

Wood is a very cost effec­tive option for large orders of dimen­sion­al letters.

Finishes

Com­mon­ly used dimen­sion­al sign let­ter finishes:

  • Paint­ed to match cor­po­rate col­ors (Cus­tom pan­tone, PMS #‘s)
  • Brushed nick­el
  • Brushed gold
  • Mir­rored (Chrome)
  • Frost­ed Acrylic (Pas­tel Ice Frost®)
  • Glossy black (Pig­ment­ed acrylic)

We con­tin­ue to inno­vate with a wide array of cus­tom finishes. 

We have the widest selec­tion of acrylic based brushed met­al sub­sti­tute fin­ish­es that pro­vide the look and feel of sol­id met­al, with a crisper and more refined appear­ance at a frac­tion of the cost.

Com­plex gra­di­ents and graph­ics can be dig­i­tal­ly print­ed onto the mate­r­i­al and cut to shape. The edges of the mate­r­i­al can then be paint­ed to match the gra­di­ents on the faces of the letters.

How are dimensional letters made?

Four easy steps for mak­ing 3D sign letters:

  • Art­work Preparation
  • Laser Cut­ting
  • Paint­ing
  • Instal­la­tion

Art­work Preparation

In order to ensure the high­est qual­i­ty final prod­uct for your sign, we require the orig­i­nal art­work files for your logo. This could be a file in either .EPS, .PDF or .AI for­mat with vec­tors. You should be able to get this from the per­son who designed your logo. Although we can­not pro­ceed with­out this file, if you do not have it, we will help you recre­ate it.

If you have spe­cif­ic col­ors to match such as Pan­tone col­ors or paint swatch­es, we need them at this point so that our team can mix our paints accordingly.

Laser Cut­ting

We use a high grade indus­tri­al CNC laser cut­ting machine that fol­lows every point and curve of your logo to ensure your dimen­sion­al sign is cut pre­cise­ly to specifications.

Paint­ing

Once your dimen­sion­al let­ters have been cut, we paint them to match. Brushed fin­ish­es also have edges paint­ed sil­ver to match for a sol­id, seam­less look.

Instal­la­tion

We pro­vide every­thing required to mount your sign in the box, includ­ing easy to use mount­ing pat­tern, instal­la­tion instruc­tions, hard­ware and adhe­sives. We also pro­vide local instal­la­tion pro­fes­sion­als to help with dimen­sion­al sign let­ter installation.

Excited to start your Dimensional Sign Project?

We make cus­tom dimen­sion­al signs quick and easy— from design­ing, and sug­gest­ing mate­r­i­al options to deter­min­ing wall mount­ing details for instal­la­tion— We have you cov­ered! Get in touch to quote and order your own dimen­sion­al sign.

Get Quick Quote

Frequently Asked Questions

No — qual­i­fy­ing US orders are cov­ered under CUS­MA (known as USM­CA in the US) and arrive free from import duties. Our dimen­sion­al let­ters are designed and man­u­fac­tured at our shop in Hamil­ton, Ontario, which is what makes them eli­gi­ble under the agree­ment. We ship through­out Cana­da and the USA, so order­ing from the US works the same way it does for our Cana­di­an customers.

We do. Every US ship­ment goes out with the CUS­MA cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of ori­gin and the com­mer­cial doc­u­men­ta­tion cus­toms needs, so your sign clears the bor­der with­out any­thing extra for you to file.

Import duties and car­ri­er fees are two dif­fer­ent things. Qual­i­fy­ing orders enter the US duty-free under CUS­MA, but couri­ers some­times bill a sep­a­rate cus­toms entry or bro­ker­age fee on cross-bor­der ship­ments. Ask us when you request your quote and we’ll con­firm exact­ly what to expect for your deliv­ery address.

Yes — a free mock­up comes with every quote. Send us your logo and a pho­to of the wall, and we’ll show you the let­ter­ing in place at the depth, mate­r­i­al, and fin­ish you’re con­sid­er­ing, before you com­mit to anything.

We’ll keep refin­ing that mock­up with you until the details are right. If you’d like sev­er­al dif­fer­ent design direc­tions explored side by side, that’s a design project rather than a quote — just ask and we’ll price it for you.

Yes — flush mount­ed let­ters can be removed and rein­stalled, as long as you dis­lodge the tape even­ly instead of pulling the let­ters off the wall. Remov­ing a sign set in dou­ble sided tape and sil­i­cone takes about 30 min­utes plus a 10 minute sol­vent soak. Here’s the process we recommend:

  1. Wedge a lever bar scraper under the edge of one let­ter. Work on a sin­gle let­ter or sym­bol at a time, slid­ing the scraper care­ful­ly under­neath to get lever­age on the tape.
  2. Work the scraper even­ly all the way around that piece. Dis­lodge the tape around the entire edge before you pull any­thing away from the wall. This is the step that pro­tects the mate­r­i­al — too much pres­sure in one spot, or pulling the let­ter off before all the tape is released, can bend, snap or deform it.
  3. Lift the let­ter away and set it face up on clean card­board. Repeat steps 1 to 3 for each remain­ing let­ter and symbol.
  4. Soak the tape on the backs in kerosene or Var­sol. Apply the sol­vent to the tape only and keep it off the faces and edges of the sign. Give it about 10 min­utes to ful­ly penetrate.
  5. Scrape off the soft­ened tape and wipe the backs with a paper tow­el or shop cloth.
  6. Wipe the backs again with rub­bing alco­hol to remove any remain­ing glue residue.
  7. Cut away any clear sil­i­cone left between the tape lines using a scraper knife.
  8. Reap­ply new dou­ble sided tape, leav­ing open spots for fresh clear silicone.
  9. Rein­stall using a new instal­la­tion tem­plate so the let­ters land lev­el and cor­rect­ly spaced on the new wall.

If you’d rather not do this your­self, get in touch — we can sup­ply a replace­ment instal­la­tion tem­plate and tape kit, or con­nect you with a local installer.

Most dimen­sion­al let­ter signs from Art­Signs range from $300 to $1,200 USD and up. The final price depends on the over­all size of the sign, the mate­r­i­al and its thick­ness, the com­plex­i­ty of the shapes being cut, and the fin­ish — air­brushed and CMYK-print­ed fin­ish­es cost more than stan­dard paint­ed col­ors. Send us your logo and dimen­sions for an exact quote, usu­al­ly with­in one busi­ness day.

Half-inch acrylic is the most pop­u­lar choice for inte­ri­or dimen­sion­al let­ters. It laser-cuts clean­ly around fine details, takes any paint­ed, frost­ed, or brushed-met­al fin­ish, and costs sig­nif­i­cant­ly less than sol­id met­al while look­ing just as sharp. For a bold­er look, step up to 3⁄4″ or 1″ acrylic; for large bud­get-friend­ly orders, laser-cut wood or MDF works well.

Dimen­sion­al let­ters mount one of two ways: flush to the wall with strong dou­ble-sided tape and sil­i­cone, or raised on 1⁄2″ spac­ers (small peg mounts) for a float­ing, shad­ow-cast­ing effect. Every Art­Signs order ships with a full-size mount­ing tem­plate, instal­la­tion instruc­tions, hard­ware, and adhe­sives — most cus­tomers install their sign them­selves in under an hour, or we can con­nect you with a local installer.

Yes — out­door dimen­sion­al let­ters just need the right mate­r­i­al. We rec­om­mend flat-cut alu­minum, stain­less steel, or oth­er exte­ri­or-rat­ed met­als for out­door signs because they stand up to sun, rain, and tem­per­a­ture swings. Our acrylic brushed-met­al sub­sti­tute fin­ish­es are best kept indoors, where they deliv­er the same metal­lic look at a low­er cost.

Stan­dard turn­around for a cus­tom dimen­sion­al let­ter sign is 3 to 4 weeks from art­work approval to ship­ping. If you’re on a dead­line, we offer lim­it­ed rush pro­duc­tion in 1 to 3 weeks depend­ing on the com­plex­i­ty of your sign and our cur­rent sched­ule — men­tion your install date when you request a quote and we’ll con­firm what’s possible.