How to use Neon Sign Generator
A neon sign is a few pieces of bent glass wired in series to a transformer. This one is assembled that way: continuous tubes with an electrode at each end, jumpers hidden under blockout, and a circuit budget the status bar reads out.
A short guide to getting good results, plus answers to the questions people ask most.
How to use it
- 1
Roll a sign
Press Randomize on the rail, press R, or choose it in the File menu. Each roll is a shop word in a sans or a script with its own fill, tube and height, and the link carries the roll so it can be shared.
- 2
Set the size and the glass
On the Sign tab choose centimeters or inches and drag the height; Assembly sets the longest tube a bender makes, strict bends and the wiring. The Tube tab sets the diameter, the fill and the blockout color.
- 3
Read the circuits
The Power tab sets the transformer's rating, and the Circuits section shows how many tubes each one carries and how much of its rating they ask for. The status bar counts tubes, transformers and any corner tighter than the glass allows.
- 4
Export
Save a PNG at 1×, 2× or 4× from the Export tab or the File menu, transparent with the glow in its alpha. Save the project to your account to keep it, or share it.
About this tool
Press Randomize and the tool rolls a shop word — OPEN, JAZZ, COLD BEER — in one of two single-stroke faces, then assembles it the way a glass bender would: a small number of continuous tubes, each bent from one piece with an electrode housing at each end, the letters joined by jumpers painted with blockout so the tube keeps going without showing, and a jumper that has to cross lit glass lifted clear of it. The sign has real dimensions — a 12 mm tube by default, with 8, 10 and 15 mm to choose from, its width in centimeters or inches in the status bar and a slider for its height — and the glass sets the bends: a corner tighter than an inside radius of one and a half tube diameters is rounded to that limit, or, with strict bends off, left as drawn and counted as a warning. A run longer than the longest piece a bender makes is split. Then the tubes are wired in series: each one's voltage is estimated from its gas, its diameter and its length, and tubes fill a transformer to nine tenths of its rating before a second circuit opens. Show wiring draws every cable to the transformer.
The fills are a catalog of ten real combinations rather than a color picker: neon in clear glass for the orange-red everyone means by the word, argon-mercury in clear glass for the pale blue, warm white, cool white, green, pink and turquoise phosphors over argon-mercury, a pink phosphor over neon, neon in ruby glass and argon-mercury in cobalt. Their colors are a first rendering, provisional until the physics behind them is built. The stage is WebGL 2: the tubes glow with a bloom around them over a transparent background, and you can zoom, pan and fit. Export a PNG at one, two or four times the stage with the glow carried in its transparency, or save the project to your account and share it. This is a first release, and the simulated electricity, the drawing tools, walls and animated loops are being built next. Nothing is uploaded and nothing is kept between visits.
Features
Glass, not glowing lines
A rolled word is assembled into continuous tubes with an electrode housing at each end, jumpers hidden under blockout paint, a jumper that crosses lit glass raised clear of it, and bends no tighter than glass allows — all at real dimensions.
Ten real fills
Neon and argon-mercury in clear glass, five phosphor coatings, ruby and cobalt glass: the combinations a neon shop stocks, named the way a bender names them. Their colors are a first rendering; the physics behind them is next.
Wired to a transformer
Every tube's voltage is estimated from its gas, its diameter and its length, and tubes fill a transformer in series to nine tenths of its rating before a second circuit opens. The Circuits section shows each one's load, and Show wiring draws the cables.
A lit stage and a transparent PNG
A WebGL 2 stage draws the tubes glowing, with a bloom around them, over transparency. Zoom, pan and fit, then save a PNG at 1×, 2× or 4× with the glow carried in its alpha.
Frequently asked questions
Is the neon sign generator free?
Yes. The sign, every fill and the PNG export are free with no sign-up and no watermark. The assembly and the rendering run in your browser and nothing is uploaded.
Where does the word come from?
Randomize rolls one of twenty words a neon shop would hang — OPEN, JAZZ, COLD BEER — in a monoline sans or a script, with a fill, a tube diameter and a height. Roll again until a sign you like comes up, then change any of them; a shared link or a saved project opens the same word.
Can I pick any color?
No, and that is what makes it neon. A real sign's color comes from its gas, its phosphor coating and its glass, so the tool offers ten of those combinations and names each one. Their colors are a first rendering, provisional until the physics behind them is built.
Why does the status bar count bend warnings?
Glass bends no tighter than an inside radius of one and a half times the tube's diameter — 18 mm for a 12 mm tube. Where a corner's legs are too short for that radius, the tool rounds it as far as it can and counts a warning, or with Strict bends off leaves it as drawn and still counts it. A taller sign or a thinner tube gives the corners room.
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