Marquee Letter Lighting Choices
There are different ways that you can light up your Marquee letter sign: neon, SpectraLites™ internal LEDs, SolarBrite™ internal LEDs, LetterLites™ external LEDs and external backlights with or without backplates.
Click on the "Neon", the "LED Lighting", or Backlights tabs to the left to learn about these lighting options.
There are two important indexes for judging the importance of various lamps in illuminating your sign: Color Rendering Index (CRI) and the light’s color, expressed as degrees Kelvin (K).
In degrees Kelvin a lower number is a more “yellow/red” light, a higher number is a more “blue” light.
Interestingly, the color of “daylight” varies from the equator to the poles. But it is generally accepted as about 6000K with a CRI of 100.
A CRI of 100 is perfectly matching the sun’s effect on colors.
In white neon the old standard has been that 6500K neon is best for lighting a sign face. It has a CRI of 65. The tri-phosphor “rare earth” neon Signs Manufacturing™ uses to illuminate digital graphics, translucent paint, translucent vinyl, and color transparencies has a CRI of almost 100.
Unless you work for a very major corporation and have been paid to study this issue this information has not been readily available until now.
Thanks
to digital photography we are now able to show you what we
are talking about without asking each potential customer
to visit our lighting laboratory.
The left side of the picture is a sign lighted by Daylight HO fluorescent lamps, the right side with CW HO lamps. A thin black line has been placed where the two pictures are spliced together.
Daylight HO lamps are 6000K with a CRI of 65. CW HO lamps are 4500K with a CRI of 50.
Fluorescent lamps are actually just large pieces of neon!
Our simple goal is to get a potential customer to notice your sign first; rather than look at someone else’s sign and never notice yours.
Different LEDs for Different Uses
Every individual LED bulb is designed for a specific purpose. As an example, the design of an LED for a flashlight is different from a LED designed for an LED electronic sign. One is designed to focus all light straight ahead, the other to disperse its light evenly in all forward directions.
Significantly, almost all LEDs are not designed to meet a strict color-match. Most back-lighting LEDs are designed to light a colored plastic.
Did you know that an LED that is superior at lighting Marquee letters with plastic faces is not the best choice to light a Marquee letter or sign cabinet with translucent vinyl or digitally printed graphics on a plastic or flexible sign face; or for creating the halo around a reverse-Marquee letter?
Most sign companies do not know this. In fact, the wholesale suppliers that supply virtually all sign companies do not even carry use-targeted LED products. For them, it’s “…one size fits all…”
We use SolarBrite ™ Color-Correct™ LEDs which are specifically designed for these use-targeted applications. Their light output has a color-corrected wave length; superior for lighting translucent colors from behind.
We always use the proper LED to give our customers the best sign possible…Guaranteed.
Click on the "LED Lighting" tab in the left column for more details.
| NIGHTTIME | DAYTIME | |
| Everything Lighted | Everything Lighted | Only LetterLites™ Lighted |
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Comparison of:
A LetterLites™ Marquee Letter "H" Sign
A "S" exposed double-stroke red neon Marquee letter
A "I" internally LED lighted white Marquee letter with red vinyl graphics
A "G" Day/Night Black/White Marquee letter
A "N" blue acrylic internally lighted Marquee letter with a backplate
Special Effects:
| Twinkling LetterLites™ | SpectraLites™ |
Colors in Motion™
Differences Sell ... Light Sells
Please stop by and see all of these products displayed in our unique Sign Lighting Laboratory and Display Showroom.
Adding Motion to a Stationary Sign
We can take your normally static sign, with a fixed message, and add movement using our programmable LEDs. Different speeds, "frames" if you prefer more subtle movement, multiple colors, etc. We can even have it programmable so that you can change the colors of the LEDs!
As an added effect, you can program the moving LEDs separately from the rest of the sign. So, using the video above as an example, they could have the rotating record be green on St. Patrick's Day!
How's THAT for eye-catching?
This is available in Marquee letters as well as lighted sign cabinets, as shown above.
Literature
We believe we are the only sign company that offers informative literature on signage, our "Sign Buyer's Guide" series.
Our most popular Guides are:
52 Page Brochure
44 Page Brochure
40 Page Brochure
40 Page Brochure
40 Page Brochure
40 Page Brochure
Also Available
Also Available
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104 Product Videos |
