Show Big, Readable Text on Any Screen

Big text fullscreen in three taps

This page turns the screen you already carry into a sign. The tool above opens with yellow letters on black, the strongest contrast an LED sign can give, moving slowly so they are easy to follow. To show your own message:

• Tap the text box and type your message.
• Tap Full Screen, and the panel fills the whole display.
• Turn your phone or tablet sideways. In landscape more of the message fits across the screen.

Make the letters easy to read from afar

That is all it takes to get a screen with text that people can read from across a room. For longer distances, set the font size around 380 to 450 before going fullscreen: a higher value gives bigger, chunkier LED dots, while fullscreen already makes the letters fill most of the screen height. Much above 450 the letters are only a few dots tall and lose their shape. Short messages work best.

Keep Bold and LED glow on for thick, bright letters. Yellow or white on black reads best in most light; red and green on black also work well. Avoid pale text on a pale background, which washes out in daylight.

Scrolling or still text?

Scrolling is the default: the message moves across the screen at the speed you choose, from 1 (slowest) to 20 (fastest), to the left or to the right. It is the best choice for longer messages, because the whole sentence passes by even on a small phone. For a calm sign, keep the speed between 3 and 6.

For a still sign, tap Pause. The message moves to the center of the panel and stays there until you tap Play, which picks up the scroll from where it was. This suits short text that fits the screen width, such as "WAIT HERE", "HELLO" or a name. A longer line is cut off at both edges while paused, so let longer messages keep scrolling.

If your device has the reduce motion accessibility setting turned on, the tool respects it and shows the message still and centered from the start.

Blinking text on your phone

If you were looking for an app with blinking text on your phone, the Blink switch does the job right in the browser. The letters turn on and off at a steady pace of about once per second, which catches the eye in a crowd or a dark room. Blink works with scrolling and with paused text, so a still, blinking "TAXI" or "OVER HERE!" takes seconds to set up.

Use blinking sparingly. The rhythm is slow, well below the three flashes per second that the WCAG accessibility guidelines set as a limit, but steady flashing can still bother some people. Keep it for one or two words, and switch it off for long messages, which are easier to read when the letters stay lit.

Use a tablet or laptop as a digital banner display

A spare tablet or a laptop makes a simple digital banner display for a desk, a reception counter, a shop window or a stage. Open this page, type the message, go fullscreen and place the device where people will see it. It works as a text display for opening hours, a welcome line or a queue message. A few practical tips:

• Keep the device plugged in. A bright fullscreen sign uses more battery than everyday use.
• Turn off auto-lock, sleep or the screen saver in your device settings so the screen stays on. This is a setting of your phone, tablet or computer, not of this page.
• Raise the screen brightness for daylight or a window, and lower it in a dark room.
• Check the sign from where people will stand, and if it is hard to read, shorten the message or slow it down.

Textscreen, not a text screensaver

Some people search for a text screen saver for this kind of sign. A screen saver starts by itself when the computer is idle, and that is something only your system settings control. This page is closer to a textscreen that you start yourself and leave running: open it, type, go fullscreen, and the message stays up as long as the screen stays on.

Talking across a noisy room, or without words

Big text on a phone is a practical way to say something when voices do not carry. Some everyday situations:

• Noisy places: a bar, a busy hall, a concert or a workshop, where shouting does not work.
• Quiet places: a library, a meeting or a room where someone is asleep, where you would rather not talk at all.
• Through glass: a short note to someone on the other side of a window, a door or a car.
• Someone who is hard of hearing: a short line in large letters is one more simple way to get a point across, next to whatever way of talking they prefer.
• Meetups: a name or a meeting point in big letters at an arrival gate or a school gate.

How to show large text on your phone screen

1. Type your message in the text box, adding an emoji from the emoji picker if you like.
2. Keep yellow or white text on a black background, turn on Bold and set the font size around 380 to 450 for large LED dots.
3. Set a slow speed between 3 and 6, or tap Pause to center short text and hold it still.
4. Switch on Blink if you want the letters to flash on and off.
5. Tap Full Screen and turn your device to landscape.

Guides

• History of Scrolling LED Signs: 1928 to Your Phone
• How LED Dot-Matrix Displays Work: A Plain-English Guide
• LED Banner Message Ideas: 140 Lines for Every Occasion
• All LED banner guides

More LED banner ideas

• Concert Banner
• Airport Pickup Sign
• Party Marquee
• Running LED Text
• LED Sign Board
• Scrolling Text GIF
• Free online LED scroller