Printing letters for a sign - use Word or is there better free software?

December 17, 2004 8:14 PM

Printing Letters for a Sign: I have been asked to print up letters on paper for a church sign. The letters need to be 3" tall and 1 1/2" wide with 1/2" between each letter. Can I do this in Word (and how?) or is there a program (free) that I can download to do this?
posted by garypratt to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

There are 72 points to an inch; if you want 3" tall type, set the size to 216 points. If you just want to print letters that you're going to cut out and rearrange, you're all set at that point; type and print. If you want to actually print out a large sign, you will just have to change the page size in Word, type up what you want, and then find a place to print it out on a large piece of paper, like your local Kinko's.

Maybe there's some part of the question I'm not understanding, though.
posted by bcwinters at 9:14 PM on December 17, 2004

Response by poster: Thanks, bcwinters - that was *exactly* the information I was looking for!
posted by garypratt at 11:05 PM on December 17, 2004

The point size of a font is measured from the top of the highest point on the letters to the bottom of a descender (like the bottom loop of a lower case g), so you won't get an exactly 3" high letter from 216 points.
posted by MegoSteve at 5:57 AM on December 18, 2004

Response by poster: MegoSteve - thanks for the clarification! Before I found your answer, I had already found that 216 pt wasn't enough and ended up using 288 pt. which got me real close to 3 inches.
posted by garypratt at 3:34 PM on December 19, 2004