What is the rule of thumb when choosing colors for your Marquee - LED lit behind

[80sarcadegames]

Is there general common sense knowledge of what colors to avoid when designing your Marquee art work which will be
lit up by LED lighting behind it?

Should you try to stay a little dark but if you have your Arcade Cabinet them name on the Marquee (ie  John's Arcade Machine written on the Marquee or Multi-cade, or Jack's Arcade Cabinet etc).
font be a lighter color?

I thought I read in Saint's book that you should try to stay a little dark with a few light colored spots because the Marquee will be too bright if you choose lighter colors???

[Titchgamer]

Depends on the type of light you use and the print media really.

Obviously darker colours dont light up as much where light colours do.
But if you go with lots of dark it will barely look lit up unless you use strong lighting.

Personally I rather spec the light than try to bugger about with the marquee.
You always use brighter or dimmer lights to get the effect you want or defuse it differently.

[80sarcadegames]

Depends on the type of light you use and the print media really.

Obviously darker colours dont light up as much where light colours do.
But if you go with lots of dark it will barely look lit up unless you use strong lighting.

Personally I rather spec the light than try to bugger about with the marquee.
You always use brighter or dimmer lights to get the effect you want or defuse it differently.

'

Thanks. I'm going with 5050 LED White and attaching aluminum foil tape to diffuse and reflect the light. 

What type of material should I print the Marquee artwork on if I plan on putting it between two pieces of Plexi-glass for the above scenario?

[Titchgamer]

Cant say I have ever used that method so I cant recommend anything.
But if you print it on a trasparent film like OHP media it will let lots of light through as the ink is quite thin so you will only need soft light.
Using something like the 5050 SMD strips may be to bright but you could dim them a little and have them facing away from the marquee with a white surface behind to reflect the light back at the marquee (hope that makes sense!)

[80sarcadegames]

Cant say I have ever used that method so I cant recommend anything.
But if you print it on a trasparent film like OHP media it will let lots of light through as the ink is quite thin so you will only need soft light.
Using something like the 5050 SMD strips may be to bright but you could dim them a little and have them facing away from the marquee with a white surface behind to reflect the light back at the marquee (hope that makes sense!)

That sounds like a great idea with regards to pointing  the LED strip lights AWAY from the Marquee. This idea also will stop any chance of the  problem most people have with each individual
light on the strip making a "lack of diffusion" type of look. (ie the problem with LED strip lights is that sometimes you can see each individual light instead of diffusion of all of the lights on the strip)

[Titchgamer]

Cant say I have ever used that method so I cant recommend anything.
But if you print it on a trasparent film like OHP media it will let lots of light through as the ink is quite thin so you will only need soft light.
Using something like the 5050 SMD strips may be to bright but you could dim them a little and have them facing away from the marquee with a white surface behind to reflect the light back at the marquee (hope that makes sense!)

That sounds like a great idea with regards to pointing  the LED strip lights AWAY from the Marquee. This idea also will stop any chance of the  problem most people have with each individual
light on the strip making a "lack of diffusion" type of look. (ie the problem with LED strip lights is that sometimes you can see each individual light instead of diffusion of all of the lights on the strip)

Yup exactly!

Glad you understood my bad explanation!

Ime ill and its late and brainy no functiony normallity!

[rackoon]

I have been putting some thought into this for a few weeks now because I am remodeling a few cabs right now. I have  a marque that is red and fades to white and it looks washed out. I have another cab that has a marque from gameongraphics.com that is black with lime green and yellow flames and lettering and it looks awesome.

I have found that sometimes that colors that fade into other colors get washed out. Stark contrast seems to work best in a lite room. Bold colors for the title stand out more.

[lowlytech]

I just went through installing my backlit marquee.  I was using 2 of the logisys 15" white CCFL as a backlight.  I finally got my reverse printed marquee from Brad here on the fourms and I found the CCFL to be a bit too washed out.  I stumbled on the ledenet 5050 warm white that is mentioned in this thread and I can say I prefer it over the CCFL by a far margin.  I have foil in my marquee area, but I think it looked the best when it was almost pointed directly out.  I couldn't detect any hotspots at all.   

edit.  My marquee is equally brown, blue, yellow and red and it really doesn't "pop" as much as I would like, but it looks really excellent when the backlight is off.

[n3wt0n]

If you are sandwiching your marquee print between two pieces of plexi you may want to consider taking a random orbit sander and sanding the inside piece on one side. It will help diffuse the light and prevent hot spots from the lights. I have done this with a cheaply printed marquee and it helped greatly.

[Mike A]

n3wt0n. That is a good idea. I never thought of that.

[equlizer]

i cut a small strip 15" of 5050smd's for mine.  Not too bright or dark.