Programmable text panels are the least glamorous product we make and the one with the clearest return, because they replace a task somebody is currently doing by hand. This page covers what to put on one, how tall the characters have to be, how many colours you actually need, how the text gets updated from a desk, and what buying one 339 kilometres from the factory involves.
LED scrolling sign in Zaprešić — manufacturing, installation, quote
Croatia · 339 km from our plant in Győr
A running-text board is bought in Zaprešić for one of two reasons, and they are worth separating. Either something changes several times a day and has to be legible from the pavement, which is the case for a pharmacy, a service counter or a travel office on Marshal Tito Street and around Trg Ivana Pavla II; or a message has to reach people who are already moving, which is the case at the Zaprešić railway junction, along the D225, and at the gates of works such as the Roca ceramics plant on the industrial edge. The first calls for a small, close-read board. The second calls for a longer, coarser one placed high.
The job a text line is actually doing
Changing information, not advertising
The boards that pay for themselves display something that would otherwise be written on paper and taped to a window: today's duty hours, a queue number, a price that moves, a delay, a warning at a gate. The boards that disappoint are the ones bought to carry a slogan, because a slogan does not change and a printed sign says it better and for less. Before specifying anything, write down the three things the board will say next Tuesday. If the list is difficult to fill, the product you want is a fixed sign.
Character height against reading distance
The rule of thumb, and where it breaks
A rough working figure is that a character needs about a centimetre of height for every four metres of reading distance, so text read from ten metres across a forecourt wants characters around 25 millimetres tall and a board deep enough to carry two lines of them. That rule breaks down in two situations. It breaks where the reader is moving, because a driver on the D225 has a fraction of the time a pedestrian has and needs both larger characters and fewer of them. And it breaks in strong side light, where contrast rather than size is the limit.
One colour, three colours or full colour
Cost, legibility and what is genuinely needed
A single-colour amber or white board is the cheapest, the brightest per watt and the most legible at distance, which is why transport operators have used them for decades. A three-colour board adds red and green and is enough for a status display where something has to be marked as open, waiting or closed. Full colour costs more and is only worth it if you will show a logo, a photograph or video. Many buyers specify full colour and then run white text on black for two years, which is a real waste.
How the text gets changed
From a desk, over the network, or from a stick
Updating has to be trivial or it will not happen. The board takes content in three ways: over the building network from a computer at the counter, over Wi-Fi where running a cable to the board would mean lifting a ceiling, or from a memory stick for a site with no network at all. Messages can be composed in advance and given start and end times, so a set of opening hours for a public holiday can be prepared weeks ahead and will appear and disappear on its own. We hand over with someone from your staff doing the first update themselves rather than watching us do it.
Mounting positions and glass
Inside the window, on the facade, or on a post
A board mounted inside the shop window is the simplest option and needs no external fixing, but it fights reflections and loses some brightness to the glass, so it wants a higher output than an equivalent unit fixed outside. That trade-off is worth thinking about on a frontage facing Trg Ivana Pavla II, where the afternoon light is strong. A board on the facade avoids both problems and gains an IP65 enclosure and an ambient sensor, at the cost of a fixing, a cable route and a consent conversation. A post-mounted unit at a site entrance is the right answer where the message is for arriving vehicles rather than for people on the pavement.
Delivery, service and cover at 339 kilometres
Why these are shipped rather than installed
Most text boards leave here fully assembled, configured with your content already loaded, and are fitted by a local electrician in an hour. That is deliberate: at 339 kilometres it makes no sense to send a crew for a job of that size, and the saving belongs to you. If we do attend, the kilometres and subsistence are shown as separate rows in the offer. Cover is a one-year or two-year term depending on the model, spare modules and a spare power supply are included with the shipment, and a failed unit can be exchanged by post more quickly than a visit could be arranged.
