How to Prepare Artwork for Channel Letters (What Sign Shops Actually Need)

Nine out of ten quote delays we see at Crisp Signs LLC come down to artwork. A customer sends a PNG they pulled off Google, or a business card scan, or a screenshot of their website header — and then we spend two days emailing back and forth trying to get a usable file.

Here's what sign shops actually need, why, and how to prep your artwork yourself if you don't have a designer on retainer.

The three-second version

Your sign shop needs:

A vector file of your logo (.ai, .eps, .svg, or vector .pdf)
The specific color values you want (Pantone, CMYK, or RGB)
The dimensions you want the finished sign to be (letter height, total width, etc.)

If you have all three, you're 15 minutes from a real quote. If you don't, keep reading.

Why sign shops need vector files

A vector file is math. It describes your logo as points, lines, and curves that can be scaled to any size without losing quality. A raster file (JPG, PNG, GIF, screenshot) is a grid of pixels. When you scale a raster file up to sign size, the pixels visibly stretch and blur.

Channel letters get cut from actual metal using CNC routers and laser cutters. The machine needs vector paths to follow. Feed it a PNG and it can't cut anything — someone (usually us) has to manually retrace your logo into vector, which costs time and money and might not exactly match your brand.

Common vector file extensions:

.ai — Adobe Illustrator (the industry standard)
.eps — Encapsulated PostScript (older but universal)
.svg — Scalable Vector Graphics (web-friendly, works well)
.pdf — can be vector or raster. Save from Illustrator or a vector app and it's vector. Save from Word or Powerpoint or scan and it's usually raster.

Common raster file extensions (NOT what we need):

.jpg / .jpeg
.png
.gif
.tif / .tiff (unless specifically vectorized)
.bmp
.heic (iPhone photos)

How to know if your file is actually vector

Open the file in a browser or preview app and zoom in as far as you can:

Vector: stays crisp at every zoom level. Edges remain sharp.
Raster: eventually shows visible pixels or blur as you zoom.

Or: open the file in Adobe Illustrator, Affinity Designer, or Inkscape (free). If you can see and edit individual anchor points on the shapes, it's vector. If you see a locked "Embedded Image" with no editable points, it's a raster image inside a vector container — still not usable.

What if I only have a JPG or PNG?

Three options, in order of preference:

Option 1: Find your designer's original file

If someone designed your logo — an agency, a freelancer, a college friend — email them and ask for the "original vector" or "the AI/EPS/SVG file." Any competent designer keeps these. This is by far the fastest path.

Option 2: Have your logo vectorized

If the original is truly lost, a designer can redraw your logo as vector art. This is called vectorization or tracing and typically costs $50–$300 depending on complexity. Simple wordmarks are cheaper; complex illustrated logos with gradients, textures, or fine detail are more expensive.

Many sign shops offer this service in-house — we do. Ask for a quote before assuming your existing raster is unusable.

Option 3: Auto-trace tools (last resort)

Adobe Illustrator's Image Trace feature, Inkscape's Trace Bitmap, or online tools like Vector Magic can attempt to auto-convert a raster image to vector.

Warning: auto-tracing rarely produces production-ready art. Curves get jagged, gradients get lost, fine details get mangled. Auto-traced art usually needs manual cleanup by a designer before it can be cut on a router.

Only use auto-tracing if:

Your logo is a simple, high-contrast wordmark or icon
You're comfortable cleaning up the result yourself
You've compared the traced version to the original at 300% zoom and confirmed the shapes actually match

The color spec problem

"Just make it my brand red" is not enough information. There are dozens of reds.

Give your sign shop one of these three color specs:

Pantone (PMS) number — the industry gold standard. Example: PMS 186 C. Sign shops can match Pantone colors precisely because acrylic manufacturers publish Pantone charts.
CMYK values — used for print. Example: C0 M100 Y81 K4. Works for painted surfaces.
RGB or Hex values — used for screens. Example: #E30613 or RGB 227, 6, 19. Less precise for physical fabrication but usable.

If you don't know your brand colors, look at your business card, letterhead, or website. If they show, say, a bright red — go to a Pantone chart online, find the closest match, and give us that number. Or send us a swatch and we'll match it.

One important caveat: the same color looks different on different substrates and lighting conditions. A Pantone 186 C printed on a business card looks slightly different than 186 C on a translucent acrylic face lit from behind by white LEDs. Ask for a material sample before signing off on a large order.

Sizing your artwork

For channel letter signs, you need to know two things:

The height of the tallest letter (usually a capital letter with no descender). This drives the whole letter set — everything else scales proportionally.
The total width of the sign as it will appear on the wall.

Rule of thumb for readability: 1 inch of letter height per 10 feet of viewing distance. If your storefront is 100 feet from the road, your letters should be at least 10 inches tall. See our cost breakdown post for how letter height affects price.

Most sign shops will help you size the sign to your building — send us a photo of your storefront with a measurement (the width of a door or window is a good reference), and we can propose a sign size that fits.

Special considerations for illuminated signs

Illuminated channel letters have some quirks:

Very thin strokes don't light well. If your logo has letterforms with strokes thinner than about ½", the LED modules can't fit inside without creating visible hot spots. We may recommend adjusting the font or the size.
Small enclosed counters (the "hole" in an "O" or "A") also need enough room for LEDs. Below about ¾" interior diameter, they don't light cleanly.
Colored acrylic faces limit brightness. A dark blue face lets through less light than a white face lit from behind. If you're a dark-brand company, you may need brighter LEDs or a different illumination style. See our front-lit vs halo-lit guide.

The five most common artwork problems we see

Fonts converted from raster. Someone re-typed the logo into Word and sent us a screenshot. It's not the actual font — it's a lookalike.
Embedded raster inside a vector PDF. Looks vector until you zoom in and see pixels.
Missing fonts. A vector .ai file references fonts that aren't installed. We open the file and the type reflows into a default font. Send fonts along with the file, or outline the text first (in Illustrator: Type → Create Outlines).
RGB colors for a printed material. Screens use RGB; print and paint use CMYK/Pantone. RGB colors don't translate 1:1 to physical material.
Design at "actual size" that isn't actually to scale. Someone designs the logo at 4 inches wide in Illustrator, and then we're supposed to scale it to a 20-foot storefront. That's fine if the vector is clean, but any hidden raster elements will explode.

What to send to your sign shop

A production-ready artwork package for a channel letter quote should include:

The vector file in one of: .ai, .eps, .svg, or .pdf (vector). Fonts outlined.
Color specs: Pantone numbers, CMYK values, or hex codes for every color in the logo.
A sizing reference: either the letter height you want, or a photo of your storefront with a measurement so we can suggest a size.
A note on illumination preference: front-lit, halo-lit, dual-lit, or "not sure, please advise." If unsure, read front-lit vs halo-lit.

If you upload this through our Beacon builder, the system will validate it and flag anything missing before you check out. You'll typically get a real quote inside 5 minutes.

What if I want to design my own sign?

We love working with in-house designers. If you're designing the sign yourself in Illustrator:

Work in RGB or Pantone, then supply Pantone equivalents for fabrication.
Set up your artboard at the final sign size (or a clean fraction like 1/10 scale).
Outline all fonts before sending (Type → Create Outlines).
Include a "keyline" outline of every letter shape on a separate layer — this shows fabrication where each channel letter's cut path lives.
Note the mount method (individual wall mount, raceway, or backer panel) so we can plan the electrical layout.

The five-minute self-check

Before you send artwork to any sign shop, ask yourself:

Is the file vector? (Zoom in — pixels or crisp?)
Are all fonts either included or outlined?
Do I have Pantone/CMYK/hex values for every color?
Do I have a target size or a reference measurement?
Have I told the shop what illumination style I want?

Yes to all five? You're 90% of the way to a fast, accurate quote. Missing any? Fix them first — it saves everyone time.

If you're stuck on the vector-file problem, get in touch and send us what you have. We'll tell you whether it's usable or whether you need a vectorization pass, and we'll quote both paths honestly.