Suggestions Which fonts would you recommend for standing 3D letters

[Andrew Hodgson]

I am planning on cutting out 3D letters for letters to stand on a stage. I am seeking out suggestions for a font that would work well for standing.

I was thinking about using the Bold or Black version of the following fonts.

- Gotham
- Avenir Next LT Pro
- Proxima Nova
- P22 Underground
- Niveau Grotesk
- New Hero

Do you think most bold fonts would work and the base is most important or are there fonts that are better to use than others.

 

[jwlllpl]

I used this letter style for some shelf sitting letters that worked well. The original font was Refrigerator Deluxe which I modified a bit for what I needed.

 

[Pewter0000]

I personally love a good Gotham bold or Trueno Black. If they need to be free-standing, though, they might need to have solid flat bases?

 

[Andrew Hodgson]

I personally love a good Gotham bold or Trueno Black. If they need to be free-standing, though, they might need to have solid flat bases?

I do not need a font to have a flat bottom but it could. The poster above mentioned "Refrigerator Deluxe" which is a great font that already has a flat bottom. I noticed TED Talks letters generally had a flat cut for curved letters, so I plan to do something similar if needed.

 

[Bobby H]

I think the choice of typeface should really depend on the feeling or tone the lettering should evoke. What is the lettering going to say? Is it part of a brand name or slogan? Obviously a bold sans-serif typeface will be easier to fabricate than something more ornate. Even among sans faces there are many choices.

If the word, phrase or whatever it is being made in 3D letters has any rounded characters like "O" "S" or "U" then the bottoms will have to be trimmed flat to freely stand properly even with letters whose bottoms sit square on the baseline. It's either that or the letters would have to stand on partially hidden bases.

There is a decent number of typefaces whose capitals are all the same height, including the curvy characters. Serpentine, Bank Gothic and Font Bureau's Agency Gothic fall into that camp.

 

[Andrew Hodgson]

I think the choice of typeface should really depend on the feeling or tone the lettering should evoke. What is the lettering going to say? Is it part of a brand name or slogan? Obviously a bold sans-serif typeface will be easier to fabricate than something more ornate. Even among sans faces there are many choices.

If the word, phrase or whatever it is being made in 3D letters has any rounded characters like "O" "S" or "U" then the bottoms will have to be trimmed flat to freely stand properly even with letters whose bottoms sit square on the baseline. It's either that or the letters would have to stand on partially hidden bases.

There is a decent number of typefaces whose capitals are all the same height, including the curvy characters. Serpentine, Bank Gothic and Font Bureau's Agency Gothic fall into that camp.

I plan on cutting out several copies of letters to later rent out for events. I will most likely stick to a Sans Serif font. Like you said, if the font does have a curved bottom, I would have to flatten it out. Thanks for the font recommendations!