There is no standard size for an LED sign. Signs are built from cabinets of small LED lights, so they can be made to almost any size, from a countertop display to a screen that covers a wall. LED signs are measured by width and height in metres, not by the diagonal in inches like a TV.
The right size comes down to how far away people are, how long they have to read it and how much you want to show. Pixel pitch then decides how sharp it looks.
Start with the reading distance
Work out where people will be when they read the sign. A window display might be read from 3 metres away on the footpath. A pylon sign might be read from 100 metres away by drivers on a main road.
Speed matters as much as distance. At 60 km/h a car covers about 17 metres every second. If a driver first sees your sign from 100 metres away, they have about six seconds to read it. That is time for a few big words, not a paragraph. The further away and the faster people are, the bigger the letters need to be, and the bigger the sign needs to be to fit them.
Then decide what it needs to show
A sign that only shows one line, such as OPEN 7 DAYS, can be fairly small. A sign that shows a logo, a photo and a message at once needs more room. If you want several lines on screen at the same time, each line needs its own height.
Write down the longest message you plan to show. If it will not fit in big letters, either the sign gets bigger or the message gets shorter. Usually the shorter message is the better answer, and a loop of two or three short screens reads better than one crowded one.
Pixel pitch decides how sharp it looks
Pixel pitch is the distance between the centres of two neighbouring LED lights, in millimetres. A rough rule: the pitch in millimetres is about the distance in metres from which the picture looks smooth. A P10 sign looks smooth from about 10 metres, and a P4 sign from about 4 metres.
Pitch and size work together. The number of pixels across a sign is its width divided by the pitch. A 3 m wide sign at P10 is 300 pixels across. The same sign at P4 is 750 pixels across, so it can show finer detail and smaller text that still looks clean up close. A finer pitch means more lights, so it costs more for the same size of sign.
Text needs enough pixels to form clear letters. Even simple letters need about seven pixels of height to read cleanly, and they look much better with more. A 2 × 1 m sign at P10 has 100 pixels from top to bottom, which is room for two or three lines of bold text, or a logo and a short message. Our guide to pixel pitch has more on how pitch changes the picture.
Single colour or full colour
Words and numbers read well on a single colour sign. Logos, photos and video need full colour, and photos look best at a finer pitch, because a photo needs more pixels than a line of text to look right. Our guide to single colour or full colour LED signs helps you choose.
Check the space and the rules
The site sets limits as well. Measure the wall, fascia or pylon where the sign will go, and look at what is around it, such as trees, awnings and other signs. For outdoor signs, council sign policies can limit the size and height, so check before you settle on a size. We help with council approval at no extra cost.
Try sizes in the pixel pitch planner
Our pixel pitch planner works like a size calculator you can see. Pick what the sign shows (a shop ad, a photo or a scoreboard), then try it on a 2 × 1, 3 × 2 or 5 × 4 m sign, in full colour or single colour red, at pitches from P2.5 to P16. For each one it shows the gap between the lights, the distance the picture looks smooth from and the number of pixels on the sign. A close-up shows what a 30 cm patch of the sign looks like.
Send us the details
The quickest way to get the size right is to send us a photo of the spot and tell us how far away people will be and what the sign needs to say. We will suggest a size and a pitch. To see what else changes the cost, read what affects the cost of an LED sign. Our FA2 outdoor range comes in pitches from P3.9 to P10. See our outdoor LED signs and pylon signs.
Get a free quote, or call Aaron on 0416 053 335 or the office on (08) 9335 7944.
