Purchasing Custom Vehicle Lettering

By Author: Jamie Quint
Total Articles: 25
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Purchasing Custom Vehicle Lettering

When you decide to add vehicle lettering to your car and truck, you want to find a comprehensive lettering company. You can look for a specialty shop near your home or you can use on of the many companies that offer this online. However you decide to purchase it, make sure the company is able to do what you want.

Vinyl lettering can be applied to the vehicle itself or on the windows of your vehicle. Whether it is advertising a business, or just for fun, you want your lettering to be eye catching and not too busy.

If you know what you are looking for, many online companies have a program built within their websites that allow you to key in your text and play with the options to find the best possible design. You have to go through a couple of different sites to find one that can make you lettering in the colors and graphics that you want. Look for sites that will show immediate previews and plenty of font options so that you can see exactly what your lettering is going to look like.

Just like with regular signs, a good custom lettering shop should offer you ...
... options such as shadowing, alignment, and shape effects. Having your graphic text in curves and arches gives it flair and you can easily visualize what it would like on your vehicle. For example, say you want to put the name of you child's sports team on the back of your vehicle with their name. You could put the school name on the top in an arch, the team name on the bottom in a curve and your child's name in the middle with their player number. Look for a site that offers you this type of setup.

Something else you want to look for when shopping for a place to have your custom lettering produced is if they offer different types of vinyl. Calendared vinyl is the middle grade material used the most. It will shrink or pull back if it gets too hot, but it is also less expensive, easy to handle and install, and can last for up to five years. Premium grade is a thinner vinyl than calendared vinyl. It can be applied over rivets, corrugations, and curves in your vehicle. Because of the way it is made, it will not shrink and it will last a couple of years longer than the standard calendared vinyl. Make sure that the colors you chose for your lettering is melted into the vinyl using thermal resin technology. This will keep your letters from fading or running.

Going with a local shop will allow you to immediately ask questions about how the vinyl is processed, how long it will take to produce, and they may even install it for you. Some shops may also be willing to take a design that you provide them and give you a price quote on it and produce it for you. Be forewarned, your own design may cost extra if you cannot provide it in a medium they can use, such as on a computer disk.

Lettering ordered on line can start at $12.00 for calendared vinyl and increase in price depending on the options you choose. A local shop can provide you with a price quote that may include labor if you wish.