Whether your business is a car wash or some other type of retail operation, signs represent a crucial element of your long-term success. It’s a message that bears repeating. https://www.carwash.com/grab-attention-signage/ Bill DundasBill Dundas, a 40-year veteran of the on-premise sign industry as a fabricator, installer and journalist, is President/Executive Director of the Foundation for the […]
Continue readingTag Archives: conspicuity
I Saw Your Sign
Snap Judgments and Impulse Spending are Keys to the Value of Signs When a retail merchant asks a new customer how they happened to find the store, one of the most common replies is “I saw your sign.” This central function of signage — to be conspicuously intriguing and, thereby, to generate impulse buying — […]
Continue reading
National Academies’ Nighttime Overhead Signage Luminance Levels
The National Academies Press issued an 80-page report, in May 2017, entitled “Guidelines for Nighttime Overhead Sign Visibility.” It includes a chart headlined “Luminance Levels for Overhead Signs.” It lists five different visual complexity levels, ranging from a dark rural area to a commercial downtown district. It then suggests minimum luminance levels in terms of candelas per square foot and […]
Continue reading
Texas/Pennsylvania DOT Studies Says Clearview Font Improves Sign Legibility
A study conducted jointly by the Texas and Pennsylvania Departments of Transportation in April 2006 concluded the Clearview font increased the visibility distance for drives by 12% versus the existing Series E Modified font. In 1994, the Federal Highway Administration determined highway signs were no longer visible enough for a population that included older drivers. Over the next […]
Continue reading
Should Signs be Regulated as Lighting Devices?
The answer is a very clear “no.” An article by FASI President/Executive Director Bill Dundas published in the January 2016 issue of Signs of the Times magazine explains that electric signs are not lighting devices, per se. Their purpose is not to provide light, but to deliver messages. Thus, they should not be regulated as […]
Continue reading
Penn State Study Examines Font Legibility
The Larson Transportation Institute at Penn State University conducted a study on font legibility through a grant from Gemini Inc. (Cannon Falls, MN), a manufacturer of dimensional letters. The following is the Executive Summary from the report. For information about the full report, contact Philip Garvey at pmg4@psu.edu. Background and objectives The enormous font selection […]
Continue reading
What are Some Guidelines for Electronic Message Center Resolution?
A critical aspect of any sign is viewing distance. The appropriate amount of detail varies greatly, depending on the distance from which the sign will be viewed. In digital printing, this “resolution” is determined by “dots per inch,” or DPI. The more closely an image will be viewed, the higher its resolution needs to be, […]
Continue reading
How Big Do the Letters on Signs, Parallel to the Road, Need to Be?
As noted elsewhere on this website, “visual acuity” and “conspicuity” and “cone of vision” are very important for signs, because motorists must be able to detect signs, read them and then react to them in a few seconds. So how much does the visibility change when a sign directly faces the driver (perpendicular to the […]
Continue reading
What Does “Conspicuity” Mean for Signage?
Conspicuity for signage is determined by the contrast between the sign and its background. A sign must be conspicuous first, because, without it, the sign’s legibility and readability are moot points. While the appropriate size for signs is addressed on this website under the heading “How big should a sign’s letters be?”, conspicuity includes factors […]
Continue reading
How Big Should a Sign’s Letters Be?
Signs need to be legible and readable, for both pedestrians and motorists. But the safety consideration becomes paramount for the latter. Consequently, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) sets minimum standards for the letters that appear on the interstate signs that say “Cincinnati” and “Second St.” and “Next Exit.” These standards are outlined in the FHWA-produced […]
Continue reading