How The Engraved Sign
Can Put You
In The Right "Groove"

You can design your own custom engraved business signs. The engraved sign is a staple of the modern office environment because it has all the essential qualities of successful business signage.

A successful sign must have a clear message that's easy to read and easy to see. It must be made with sturdy materials that are resistant to normal wear. The business sign must also be cost effective, giving you the highest usefulness for your dollar.

An engraved sign provides all of these qualities plus they can be designed by you and ordered to the specifications you choose. Let's take a look at custom engraved signs and discover how they're made, what they can be used for, and how they can work for you.

Types Of Engraved Acrylic Business Signs

Below is a list of pages on this website providing more specific information about engraved office signs, listed by common uses in the workplace. Click the links below to get more good advice and information about the signs you need.

• Office Signage - Wall signs and other types of engraved office signage are listed here. These types of signs come in many sizes and can be used almost anywhere in office buildings, schools, hospitals, and other public buildings.
  
  
• Office Door Signs - The door sign is one of the most common and useful types of wayfinding signage and are widely used by businesses everywhere.
  
  
• Desk Nameplate - Identities and titles are displayed right in the office on desk nameplates. Check out the sizes and colors that are most useful as well as metal and plastic holders creating elegant desk displays.
  
  

What Is Engraving?

Engraving is the process of creating images, pictures or designs by cutting grooves into the surface of a material. This creates a permanent design that is more resistant to damage than applying paints and other pigments to the material surface. The image is literally part of the object.

Engravers can create designs by using hand tools. In the sign industry, engraving is usually created using machines such as routers or even lasers. A router uses a rotating bit that cuts away material as the machine moves it along a predetermined path. If you examine a custom engraved sign closely, you will sometimes be able to determine the size of the bit used to cut the lettering into the sign. Just take a look at the sample below.

Notice the width of the lines creating the letters, and the rounded ends of the letters. These letters were created with lines cut at the same width as the bit. More detailed lettering requires more than one pass of a smaller bit to create a variety of widths and shapes.

Laser cutters produce a similar result by burning away the acrylic material of the sign. Lasers are very precise and can be set to make very shallow grooves and detailed designs.

Industrial cutters produce designs and text using computer graphics. The sign is first created in the two dimensional environment of a software program. Our shop produces engraved business signs using vector graphics, which are sign designs made up of lines. These lines become the pathway of the laser or router cutting arm and an exact replica of this design is engraved into the surface of the acrylic material.

Generally speaking, any design that can be created in the computer can be engraved into a sign surface!

How Engraved Acrylic Signs Work

Most of the engraved office signs you see come in combinations of two colors. Take another close look at that engraved sign. The surface has a thin coating of paint, ink, or ultra thin plastic laminate on top. This colored layer is cut away by the engraving process, leaving behind the color of the acrylic underneath it.

The color of the material used for the sign is the color of the desired lettering. For example, a sheet of white acrylic can be coated with red paint. When dry, the router or laser cuts away this painted layer just enough to cut into and expose the white plastic underneath.

The result is a sign with lettering that is not painted or applied onto the sign, but is removed from the engraved sign. This "negative" image is what creates the lettering.

The resulting letters have a color that contrasts the sign color so the letters show up clearly. Since acrylic can be colored with pigments, any color imaginable is available.

Add to this the availability of acrylic paint colors and you have endless possibilities for engraved sign color combinations.

For more information about color combinations for signs and letters, see our vinyl sign lettering page.

No matter what types of engraving tools are used, the principal is always the same: engraving creates the sign by removing small amounts of the surface material. Therefore, an engraved sign has the advantage of being one whole piece rather than one made from components. The letters created have no chance of falling off like attached letters can, or being smudged or smeared like painted letters can be.

The only other type of sign that has this advantage would be a metal or plastic sign made by a press or mold. Engraving can be achieved using acrylic sheet, and the process is simpler than molded signs.

Another advantage of the engraved sign is that it can be made using a computer. Signs are cut to perfect measurements. The letters are laid out and the laser cutter or router follows the paths of the letters in the computer file.

This offers flexibility when designing signs, and produces accurate results. It also means that parts of the process can be automated, so mass production is easier and more efficient.

Computers can also be used to order accurate signs. Some companies have websites which contain software interfaces you can use to create your own signs. You can design your own sign right in your browser, and choose fonts, colors, and sizes. The program will show you what your sign looks like as you make it, so you know exactly what you're getting when you purchase.

It's obvious! Engraved office signs are efficient, effective, and beneficial to you and your business.

Next, we'll look at some of the common uses for engraved office signage in a business environment.

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