Blog
October 18, 2026
How Lit 3D Letters Are Made: A 3D-Printed Letter vs a Channel Letter
How can a letter be hollow and still glow evenly? Visitors ask us this all the time, so we 3D-printed a small lit letter M they can hold. Here’s what’s inside it, and how the same idea scales up to big channel letters.
The letter we hand to visitors
Why we made a glowing letter you can hold
Clients often drop by our office to talk about a new sign. Sooner or later, one question always comes up: how are the letters made, and how can they be hollow? Drawings help a bit. Holding a real letter helps far more.
So we printed one on our new Bambu Lab 3D printer: a letter M about 6 to 7 inches high, with LEDs inside and a coloured acrylic face. It sits on a desk and is easy to carry into meetings.
Size
About 6 to 7 in high
Shell
PLA, printed in-house in one piece
Light
White LED strip on a 12 V adapter
Face
3 mm acrylic, any colour
Once they hold the small letter in their hand, they get immediate clarity of how all of this works.
Show, don't tell
Pop the face off and look inside
On this demo we left the acrylic face loose on purpose. A visitor can pop it out, see the LEDs inside, and swap in a different colour. In a minute they understand what our team means by "hollow", "LEDs inside" and "the face".
And the letter can be any shape: your logo, your initials, a word. The M is just the one we picked.
Hold it
Light enough to hand round a table.
See inside
The face lifts off to show the LEDs.
Try colours
Swap faces to see your brand colour lit.
Ask anything
It answers most questions before they're asked.
The exploded view
Three parts: back panel, shell and face
Every lit 3D letter we make, big or small, is built from the same three parts. Here they are on the M.
1
The back panel
It closes the back of the letter. We call it the base plate. The LED strip is glued onto it.
2
The LEDs
A white LED strip runs along every stroke of the letter. It plugs into a 12 V adapter, which goes into a normal socket.
3
The shell
The hollow sides of the letter. On the M they are 3D-printed in one piece; on bigger letters they are a bent aluminium strip (more on that below).
4
The face
3 mm acrylic, laser-cut to the exact shape of the letter. The light shines through it, so the face colour is the glow colour.
The idea in one picture
A hollow letter with a light inside
The back panel holds the LEDs, the shell makes the sides, and the acrylic face closes the front.
Illustration, not to scale.
Look inside
What you see with the face off
Take the face off and it really is that simple: a hollow letter with a strip of LEDs on its back panel.
From above
The LED strip glued along the back panel, following every stroke of the M.
Close up
The strip up close: small LEDs every few centimetres.
Real photos of our demo letter, only light and colour corrected.
Made on our 3D printer
One piece, no joints, no screws
We printed the shell on our Bambu Lab H2D (pictured, in the maker's own product photo), a 3D printer that can work with several filaments in one print. It builds the letter layer by layer in PLA, a common printing plastic, and switching filaments gave us the orange, white and yellow stripes on the sides.
The best part is what you don't get: joints, screws or nails. The shell comes off the printer as one smooth piece, which matters when people see the sign from close up.
Seamless
One printed piece, so no seams or screw heads on the sides.
Striped or plain
Several filament colours in one print, or a single colour.
Up to about 12 in
Our printer's bed sets the size of a one-piece letter.
Any shape
Your logo or letters, printed to the exact outline.
The shell
Stripes that glow
PLA lets a little light through. So when the LEDs are on, the printed sides glow softly in their own colours, while the face glows brightly in front. That side glow is what makes this letter so pretty from an angle.
Switched off
The empty printed shell, with its orange, white and yellow stripes.
Switched on
The same stripes lit from inside.
Real photos of our demo letter, only light and colour corrected.
Pick a colour
One letter, any colour face
The LEDs inside are white. The colour comes from the acrylic face, so the same letter glows yellow, cyan, red or white depending on which face goes on. Acrylic comes in a wide range of colours, so we can usually get close to your brand colour.
Yellow
Yellow acrylic face.
Cyan
Cyan acrylic face.
Red
Red acrylic face.
White
Opal white acrylic face.
Same letter, four faces. Real photos; camera colours may differ a little from the acrylic itself.
Day and night
Good-looking with the lights off, too
By day, a lit letter is still a glossy coloured acrylic letter. Switch it on and the face fills with even light.
Off
Green face, lights off.
On
Same letter, lights on.
Real photos of our demo letter.
The traditional way
Bigger letters: channel letters from our bending machine
A printed shell is limited by the size of the printer, about 12 inches for us. We could print a big letter in parts and join them, but that brings back the joints, so for bigger letters we use our channel bending machine instead.
It bends a strip of aluminium around the outline of each letter. That strip becomes the letter's sides (the "channel"). The rest is the same as on the M: a back panel with LEDs inside and a laser-cut acrylic face on top. Our usual shop-board letters are about 2.5 inches deep. See the channel letters on our 3D LED sign board page.
1
Bend the sides
The machine bends the aluminium strip to the outline of the letter.
2
Close the back
The channel is fixed to a back panel, often on an ACP base board.
3
Fill with LEDs
LED modules go in, packed to light the face evenly.
4
Fit the face
The laser-cut acrylic face goes on top, in your colour.
Channel letters we made
Same idea, much bigger
Inside a channel letter you see the same thing as inside the M: LEDs on the back, sides all round, a face on top. The metal sides keep the light in, so only the face glows.
Inside
LED modules wired inside a channel letter before its face goes on.
Lit
Finished channel letters lit on our workshop floor.
Real photos of channel letters made in our Pune workshop.
Side by side
3D-printed letter or channel letter?
Size
Printed: up to about 12 in in one piece. Channel: from small to very large letters.
Sides
Printed: PLA, one seamless piece. Channel: bent aluminium strip.
Side glow
Printed: the sides glow softly. Channel: metal sides, only the face glows.
Best seen from
Printed: close up, under about 2 ft. Channel: across a room or a road.
Where it goes
Printed: mainly indoors. Channel: indoors and outdoors.
Face
Both: laser-cut acrylic in your colour.
Which one for you?
When a printed letter makes more sense
Picture a small sign inside a smart showroom, say a phone store, where customers stand less than 2 feet away. Up close, the screws and joints of a channel letter show. A well-finished 3D acrylic letter or a printed letter looks far neater there.
For a shop front, a building name or anything big, channel letters are the right choice, and that's most of what we make.
Showroom and counter signs
Small logos seen from up close: printed or 3D acrylic letters.
Shop fronts and building names
Bigger letters seen from the road: 3D LED channel letters.
Outdoors
PLA is not made for strong sun and rain. When a printed letter goes outside, we paint it with an outdoor coating, so the sides no longer glow.
Not sure?
Our sign board guide has a quick board finder.
A 3D-printed letter is almost seamless. It is monolithic: no joints, no screws, no nails. It comes out as one piece.
Want one?
Price and what to send us
The M is our demo, so it has no price. For your own lit letters, these are our current rates.
3D-printed lit letters
price on request
Backlit acrylic logo letters on a base plate
₹2,000 per sq ft + 18% GST
about ₹2,000 per sq ft + 18% GST, indicative; exact price in our free proposal
Good to know
Send your logo
A CorelDRAW, AI or PDF file is best; a clear image works to start with.
Tell us the size
And where it goes: a counter, a reception wall or a shop front.
Minimum order
₹3,000 + GST per order.
Made in Pune
Delivered free in Pune on orders of ₹3,000 + GST and above.
Want to hold the M yourself? Drop by our shop in Pune and we'll put it in your hand.
Questions people ask
Lit 3D letters: FAQ
Why are the letters hollow?
The LEDs sit inside, on the back panel. The space between them and the face spreads the light so the face glows evenly.
Where does the colour come from?
From the acrylic face. The LEDs are white, so the face colour is the glow colour.
Can you 3D-print my logo as a lit sign?
Yes, on request, up to about 12 inches in one piece. Bigger letters we make as channel letters.
Why do the printed sides glow?
PLA lets a little light through. Metal channel sides don't, so on a channel letter only the face glows.
Can a printed letter go outdoors?
We paint it with an outdoor coating first, because PLA is not made for strong sun and rain. Then only the face glows.
Can I see one before I order?
Yes. The M lives on a desk in our office. Come and see it, or see how we plan a sign board.
Made in Pune
Small letter, big answer
We built the M to answer one question, and it answers most of the others too. If you're planning a lit sign, start with the page that fits your size.
See more
Service
3D LED glow sign boards
Channel letters and nine other lit sign types for shop fronts and buildings.
See the page →Blog
Colour-changing LED logo signs
A lit logo that changes colour from a remote, built for L&T.
Read the post →Your turn
Planning a lit logo or letters?
Send us your logo and the size on WhatsApp. We'll tell you which build suits it and what it costs.
Looking for any specific product?
Drop us a line. Send us your query. And we’ll get back to you with solutions and answers.
Mitesh Sanghani
Mitesh lives, mostly for Saturdays.
But when forced to work, you’ll find him heading Orchid Digitals – a printing press in Pune.
If it’s an emergency, try looking for him in the hills behind his house. You’ll almost certainly find him… lazing under a tree, with a book in hand.
