GENIUS HACK for Lettering on Signage: Ruler Scotch Tape!

Let me just say that when I discovered this, the game was CHANGEDDDDDDDD. Seriously. I’m not exaggerating. 

First Things First…

The links below may be affiliate links where appropriate. This means that your purchase through these links may result in a few cents in payment to me, to support creating further resources like this one! That being said, I will never suggest supplies that I do not personally use and fully recommend.

Supplies Used/Mentioned

• Scotch Ruler Tape (you can also purchase it in a 6-pack, which is what I usually do)
• Bohin Extra-Fine Chalk Pencil

Rather watch than read? No problem! You can swoon over Scotch Ruler Tape in real-time by clicking the video below!

Let’s Get Started!

I use my calligraphy and lettering skills to do lots of signage projects for clients.

And lemme tell you… doing projects on a big scale takes a TONNNN of measuring and drawing guidelines. That’s like 75% of the work. 

So let’s say I was working on a sign like this, k? This is actually pretty small, so just imagine it’s three times this size… (and that it’s not covered in scratches LOL.)

And I needed to draw a bunch of guidelines (like, literally hundreds) on it for a seating chart. If you’ve ever done a seating chart, you know you need to make a line for every. single. person’s name that you’re going to write. It’s SO much work. 

Generally I would take a ruler and put it along the side of my sign. I would figure out the sizing of all my names and the spaces between them, and I would draw little ticks for every single one all the way down. And then I’d do the exact same thing on the other side to make sure they were perfectly straight. Then I’d put my ruler across, and connect them.

Over and over and over again all the way down.

This takes a TON of time. Measuring out all the little ticks and connecting them with lines all the way time. It’s seriously so time consuming. For big projects, I’d spent literal hours just doing guidelines like these. 

UNTILLLLL I discovered…

Drumroll…

RULER SCOTCH TAPE.

Wait what? This exists?! YES! It freaking exists. It’s a total game changer.

If you don’t have it in your life yet, you seriously need it. 

It’s Scotch brand. You know – the tape brand we’ve all known for yeeeeears. It’s Scotch tape… with a build in ruler. So much genius here. 

So now instead of having to take my ruler and draw out all my little ticks, I just use the tape. 

I line one piece up on the left side (I start right at the 12). I measure out how long of a piece I need, rip it off, and run it down all along the left side. 

Then I do the exact same thing on the other side (also starting at 12 and lining it up). 

And now instead of having to draw all my little ticks, I just line my ruler up with the same spot on each side, and draw my lines – the ticks are built in!

This has saved me at least half the time on all my signage projects. My guidelines are always perfectly even, perfectly level, perfectly spaced. 

And did I mention that IT’S SO MUCH FASTER?!

And while we’re on the top of game changer tools, this is a chalk mechanical pencil. It’s what I use to draw my super thin chalk guidelines. It’s super fine, just like a lead mechanical pencil, but it’s chalk! You can find it here. 

There are tons of ways you could use this tape… Sometimes I use it horizontally to perfectly space my letters. There are seriously so many uses for it. 

And That’s A Wrap!

I just really wanted to share it with you because I was absolutely mind blown when I found it. It has saved me so much time, and I want to save you time too. 

I’ll link to it here if you want to go find some for yourself (I know you do).

And speaking of awesome tools for signage projects… I’ve actually got a post and free downloadable PDF with Mabz showing exaaaaactly what’s inside my toolbox for signage projects… you can find that here. See ya over there! 🙂

And finally, your dad joke…

I like jokes about stationary…
But rulers are where I draw the line.