Free channel letter estimator I built, type a word, get true perimeter, face area, LED count & power supplies

[Foremander]

Been in the trade 15+ years (installs, sales, production) and I always hated how long it takes to rough out channel letters before you've even opened a file. So I built a free estimator and figured this crowd would be the right one to beat it up.

You type the word, pick a font, set letter height, it reads the actual glyph outlines of the font (not a bounding box), so you get the true perimeter and face area. Counters are handled properly: the hole in an "O" comes out of the acrylic but stays in the trim/return footage, since you still wrap it.

From there it gives you:

• Return coil + trim cap footage (with your waste %)
• Acrylic face area, counters removed
• LED module count keyed to return depth (SloanLED density guidelines, 4/ft in shallow cans, 1.5/ft at 4", 1.2/ft at 5–8")
• Power supplies at 12V or 24V with a load-percentage cap
• A sanity-check range against the $3.95–$20 per inch of letter height industry spread

Material rates are blank-ish placeholders, you punch in your own coil/trim/acrylic pricing, it never pretends to know your costs. Runs in the browser, nothing to download, no signup: app.printerflo.com/tools/channel-letters

Would genuinely like this group's take on the numbers, especially the LED densities and whether the per-letter breakdown matches what your bender/router actually sees. If a number's wrong I want to fix it.

 

[dasigndr]

Been in the trade 15+ years (installs, sales, production) and I always hated how long it takes to rough out channel letters before you've even opened a file. So I built a free estimator and figured this crowd would be the right one to beat it up.

You type the word, pick a font, set letter height, it reads the actual glyph outlines of the font (not a bounding box), so you get the true perimeter and face area. Counters are handled properly: the hole in an "O" comes out of the acrylic but stays in the trim/return footage, since you still wrap it.

From there it gives you:

• Return coil + trim cap footage (with your waste %)
• Acrylic face area, counters removed
• LED module count keyed to return depth (SloanLED density guidelines, 4/ft in shallow cans, 1.5/ft at 4", 1.2/ft at 5–8")
• Power supplies at 12V or 24V with a load-percentage cap
• A sanity-check range against the $3.95–$20 per inch of letter height industry spread

Material rates are blank-ish placeholders, you punch in your own coil/trim/acrylic pricing, it never pretends to know your costs. Runs in the browser, nothing to download, no signup: app.printerflo.com/tools/channel-letters

Would genuinely like this group's take on the numbers, especially the LED densities and whether the per-letter breakdown matches what your bender/router actually sees. If a number's wrong I want to fix it.

VERY COOL. need more font options though. thank you for all your hard work.

 

[Foremander]

VERY COOL. need more font options though. thank you for all your hard work.

Hey Dennis appreciate that, and done. Pushed a bunch more fonts, 31 now instead of 10 the bold display workhorses plus some condensed, a couple slabs and scripts. Refresh the page and they're in the dropdown.

Couple more things you might like: you can now upload your own fonts too if a customer's got a licensed brand face, drop the TTF/OTF in and it pulls true geometry right off it (that part lives in the full app, not the free tool). And the big one I'm building next is uploading your own artwork not just typed text, but drop in a vector/logo and run it straight through to cut and print files. That's coming soon.

 

[dasigndr]

Hey Dennis appreciate that, and done. Pushed a bunch more fonts, 31 now instead of 10 the bold display workhorses plus some condensed, a couple slabs and scripts. Refresh the page and they're in the dropdown.

Couple more things you might like: you can now upload your own fonts too if a customer's got a licensed brand face, drop the TTF/OTF in and it pulls true geometry right off it (that part lives in the full app, not the free tool). And the big one I'm building next is uploading your own artwork not just typed text, but drop in a vector/logo and run it straight through to cut and print files. That's coming soon.

how and where do i get the FULL app how much?

 

[Foremander]

Hey Dennis, good news, the channel letter tool itself is free. Just moved it to its own page: https://printerflo.com/tools/channel-letter-designer/ type a word or drop in a logo, and you can download the DXF cut files and 3D-print STLs free (just leave an email). Fonts, cut files, all of it.

The full app quoting, sales orders, proofs, a live job board, invoicing and payments.. that's PrinterFlo proper: flat $179/mo for the whole shop, no per-seat pricing, 14-day free trial. If you're coming off shopVOX I'll migrate your customers and products over for you, usually same day.

 

[Sign-OS]

This is great, id love an option for metric as well

 

[Foremander]

This is great, id love an option for metric as well

Sign-OS done, metric's in there now.

Top of the estimator there's an Imperial / Metric toggle. Everything converts: letter height, coil and trim cap runs, face area. You can type your sizes in metric too, it's not just a display flip.

Cut files hold up either way, the DXF carries a proper $INSUNITS header so it imports at true real-world size in AutoCAD, Illustrator, Corel or your router software regardless of what your document is set to. The STLs for the 3D-printed cans were already in mm.

One question back at you, since you're the one who'd know: metric currently shows letter height in cm. My gut says most metric shops spec channel letters in mm, "300mm letters", not "30cm". If that's how it reads in Australia I'll change it, it's a small job.

 

[Sign-OS]

Sign-OS done, metric's in there now.

Top of the estimator there's an Imperial / Metric toggle. Everything converts: letter height, coil and trim cap runs, face area. You can type your sizes in metric too, it's not just a display flip.

Cut files hold up either way, the DXF carries a proper $INSUNITS header so it imports at true real-world size in AutoCAD, Illustrator, Corel or your router software regardless of what your document is set to. The STLs for the 3D-printed cans were already in mm.

One question back at you, since you're the one who'd know: metric currently shows letter height in cm. My gut says most metric shops spec channel letters in mm, "300mm letters", not "30cm". If that's how it reads in Australia I'll change it, it's a small job.

Thanks Formander

The AI reply is a little jarring... we get enough of that already.
Let's keep forum posts human.

Yes, we do default to millimeters in Australia.

 

[Foremander]

Thanks Formander

The AI reply is a little jarring... we get enough of that already.
Let's keep forum posts human.

Yes, we do default to millimeters in Australia.

Thanks for the warning mate, but that was all me

I'm a sign guy. Work with my brother at Images In Sign in Collingwood. Built this because we needed it.

mm it is, changed just now. Letter height, return depth, trim cap edge. Type 300 and you get a 300mm letter. Price range was showing per cm as well which nobody says, so that's gone too.

 

[Sign-OS]

Thanks for the warning mate, but that was all me

I'm a sign guy. Work with my brother at Images In Sign in Collingwood. Built this because we needed it.

mm it is, changed just now. Letter height, return depth, trim cap edge. Type 300 and you get a 300mm letter. Price range was showing per cm as well which nobody says, so that's gone too.

Thanks Formander
appriciate the additions to the calculator
you must have some trouble with your content if you write like this its flagged as 100% AI just so your aware google will actively punish search results it belives are AI generated
wish you all the best with printerflo

 

[Foremander]

Thanks Formander
appriciate the additions to the calculator
you must have some trouble with your content if you write like this its flagged as 100% AI just so your aware google will actively punish search results it belives are AI generated
wish you all the best with printerflo

View attachment 183001

mm it is, that's in now. Thanks for the steer!

On the detector, those things flag plenty of human writing. I'll own the part that's true, I use AI to tidy up how I write. I'm a sign guy, not a copywriter. The estimator, the DXF units header and the changes you asked for this morning are mine.

On Google, worth knowing because it comes up a lot. Their policy targets scaled content abuse, mass produced pages built to game rankings. Not AI use as such. They have said outright that appropriate use of AI isn't against the guidelines. Either way this is a forum post, not a web page.

Metric toggle is at the top now and everything converts. Letter height, coil and trim cap runs, face area. If anything else reads wrong for an Australian shop, tell me and I'll fix it.

For context on the criticism, signos.com.au sells competing sign shop software, with an AI assistant as one of its headline features. Mine's a free tool. No signup, no upsell, and it stays that way.

 

[Sign-OS]

mm it is, that's in now. Thanks for the steer!

On the detector, those things flag plenty of human writing. I'll own the part that's true, I use AI to tidy up how I write. I'm a sign guy, not a copywriter. The estimator, the DXF units header and the changes you asked for this morning are mine.

On Google, worth knowing because it comes up a lot. Their policy targets scaled content abuse, mass produced pages built to game rankings. Not AI use as such. They have said outright that appropriate use of AI isn't against the guidelines. Either way this is a forum post, not a web page.

Metric toggle is at the top now and everything converts. Letter height, coil and trim cap runs, face area. If anything else reads wrong for an Australian shop, tell me and I'll fix it.

For context on the criticism, signos.com.au sells competing sign shop software, with an AI assistant as one of its headline features. Mine's a free tool. No signup, no upsell, and it stays that way.

I can see I'm not getting through, just trying to help a fellow sign software founder out genuinely don't want any bad blood as as i said i do believe that you have have a great tool and wish you the best

I thought that if you were a little more personal with your forum posts it could help you out building a genuine brand in the age of AI where everyone is doing the same copy paste AI answers everywhere

just some friendly advice but hey, you do you mate

 

[Foremander]

I can see I'm not getting through, just trying to help a fellow sign software founder out genuinely don't want any bad blood as as i said i do believe that you have have a great tool and wish you the best

I thought that if you were a little more personal with your forum posts it could help you out building a genuine brand in the age of AI where everyone is doing the same copy paste AI answers everywhere

just some friendly advice but hey, you do you mate

No bad blood mate, and cheers for the mm steer.

For what it's worth on the background, our shop's been going 40 years. We ran ShopVOX and OnSign, and building this came out of being annoyed with both of them for a long time. So the logic in it isn't guessed at, it's the way we already work. That's the hardest part of building this software and it's something AI can't do well.

We're also up on Stripe's App Marketplace if you want a look, marketplace.stripe.com/apps/printerflo. Getting through their review was its own education.

Good luck with Sign OS.