Marquee letters guide: sizes, bulbs, indoor or outdoor

Marquee letters are open steel letters with a row of bulbs along the face: the theater, carnival and old-Hollywood look. Free-standing event letters are usually 3 to 5 ft tall; permanent ones hang on a wall in a bar, restaurant or venue, or on a building outside. Decide indoor or outdoor first, because an outdoor sign needs an outdoor build and a hard-wired power supply.

What a marquee letter is

Each of our marquee letters is an open steel letter with bulbs set along the face, spaced along every stroke. There is no acrylic face; the bulbs are the light. We make them as an indoor build or an outdoor build.

They are different from open-face neon channel letters, which use a continuous line of LED neon. Marquee letters give a row of separate points of light, which is what makes them read as “marquee” from across a room.

Common sizes

Use	Usual height	Why
Weddings, parties, photo backdrops	3 to 5 ft	Reads across a room and fills a photo
Bar back wall, restaurant feature wall	Sized to the wall	Should sit comfortably in the space, not crowd it
Building or outdoor sign	Set by viewing distance and the city code	Has to read from the street and meet sign rules

Letter width changes from letter to letter. An I is narrow, an M or W is wide, and symbols such as an ampersand change a lot from font to font. To check the total width of a word or a pair of initials, type it into the sign preview tool. For an outdoor sign, the letter height calculator suggests a height for your viewing distance.

Bulbs

Bulb choice changes the look more than anything else.

• LED vs incandescent. LED bulbs use a fraction of the power of the old incandescent marquee bulbs and give off far less heat. At an event, where letters stand close to guests, tablecloths, balloons and flowers, that is the difference that matters.
• Clear vs frosted. Clear bulbs show a small filament or LED point inside the glass for a vintage sparkle. Frosted or globe bulbs give a softer, even dot of light.
• Light color. Warm white (2700 to 3000 K) gives the classic golden marquee glow. Neutral white (4000 to 5000 K) and cool white (6500 K) look crisper and more modern.
• Brightness control. A dimmer lets you turn the letters down for dinner and up for the dance floor.

Indoor vs outdoor builds

Indoor builds usually plug in through a 100 to 240 V AC adapter that turns wall power into the 12 V DC the LEDs run on. They are made for dry rooms: event halls, restaurants, homes, studios.

Outdoor builds use outdoor-rated parts and an outdoor power supply that a licensed electrician hard-wires. In the trade, bulbs and sockets used outside are rated for wet locations, because rain and condensation reach every bulb on an open letter. Do not move indoor letters outside, even for one night, unless they were built for it.

A permanent outdoor marquee is a sign like any other: it usually needs a permit, and the size and brightness rules vary by city. Check with yours, and see sign permits: what cities ask for.

Events vs permanent signs

	Event letters	Permanent letters
How they stand	Free-standing on the floor or a stage	Mounted flush to a wall
Moved	Often	Once
Power	Plug-in, near an outlet	Plug-in indoors, hard-wired outdoors
Control	Switch or dimmer	Timer or dusk-to-dawn photocell
Main care	Storage, transport, cords	Cleaning, bulb checks

For events

1. Plan the floor space. Measure the width of the whole word, plus room on each side for people to stand.
2. Find the outlet. Put the letters near power and run cords along the wall, taped down, where nobody walks.
3. Keep them stable. Stand letters on a flat, level floor, away from walkways, and keep children from climbing on them.
4. Store them dry. Pad the bulbs for transport and keep the letters indoors between events.

If you run an event business, start with the words your clients ask for most, such as LOVE, an ampersand, a few initials and numbers. See our events and weddings project for ideas.

For permanent signs

Permanent letters mount flush to the wall. Every sign ships with a full-size paper mounting template and the hardware. Installation is not included, and an outdoor sign needs a licensed electrician to connect it. Add a sign timer or a dusk-to-dawn photocell so the letters switch on at dusk without anyone remembering. Controls are in the controls collection.

In a bar or restaurant, a word or two in marquee letters can carry a whole feature wall. Our bar and lounge project shows lit signs in that kind of space.

Planning a word that fits

1. Write the exact text. Count letters, spaces and symbols.
2. Check the width in the sign preview tool at the height you want.
3. Measure the space: the wall, the stage or the floor area where the letters will stand.
4. Pick indoor or outdoor, then bulb style and light color.
5. Get a number. The price estimator gives a range from our recent quotes. For the exact price, send your text, sizes and photos of the space through the quote form. We email a free drawing with a lit preview, and nothing is built until you approve it.

For the neon look instead of bulbs, read open-face neon channel letters. To compare all the lit styles, see front-lit vs halo-lit vs open-face.