Some Things You Will Need to Know About Vinyl Lettering

There are so many vinyl types of products out there on the market, it’s often hard to tell the difference between the good stuff and the garbage. Vinyl lettering, for example, is sometimes confused with graphic vinyl wrap material. It is also often assumed to be the same as letters, numbers and stickers sold in hardware stores. So, let’s get it straight and go over everything you need to know about vinyl letters, vinyl lettering and numbers.

What is Vinyl Lettering?

Vinyl Lettering is the industry term for individually computer plotter cut, solid-colored, vinyl designs. They could be letters, numbers, shapes, or simple to complicated logos. Vinyl Lettering is generally not printed; however, we also use all of our 3M vinyl for printing . A combination of lettering and printed graphics is often used together. The majority of vinyl projects are cut from a roll of solid colored vinyl. The characters in vinyl lettering are separate from each other, however they are applied as a group of letters with transfer tape. This allows for perfect and easy application.

Vinyl lettering will come in three layers. The top layer is milky white transfer tape, which holds the letters, characters or numbers together. The middle layer is the cut vinyl itself, which comes with one side coated 100% acrylic adhesive.

The bottom layer is a thick paper or waxed paper backing, which protects the adhesive until install time. The backing is removed during installation to allow the adhesive to stick to the substrate, while the transfer tape stays on and holds everything together until the lettering is secured pressed down in place. This application can be done wet or dry. See our wet install instructions.

Types of Vinyl Material

Some more things You Will Need to Know About Vinyl Lettering.  It is important to determine what vinyl you really need. Most outdoor projects can be done with a variety of materials. The best is Avery 900 Super Cast high performance 2 mill vinyl. Avery Super cast has up to a 12 year outdoor life, black, white and many of the darker colors, 3 to 9 years on the rest including the metallics, with the least outdoor life.

The product that we recommend for almost all applications is our 3M Scotchcal Series 50 Vinyl. We us it on 80% of our project and sales. We have been selling 3m Vinyl for 35 years. You will find this material is versatile and extremely stable. We highly recommend this material over any other, for these primary reasons: great life expectancy 5 to 10 years and ease of working with. Its just a great product. vinyl lettering