I want ___ inches by ____ inches and ____ inches lettering. Will this work?

Common design problem. Let’s put some figures on this problem so it makes more sense.

A customer may want 5″ letters and want it to spell out Mississippi and only wants it 15″ long. On most fonts this will want to work out to more than twice as long as desired.

So the dilemma. The customer wants 5″ lettering and no more than 15″ length.

Experience says: ‘don’t try’.

Trying to force a design in a desired space will end up ugly. Trying to work with both dimensions as absolutes is equal to ‘design by committee’.. ugly. While they may be more visible at a tall height,… stretching / squeezing letters makes them less readable (ugly).

There are very few times we insist on as a design issue. Pink with burgundy is one – and forcing sizes that do not want to work is another. It will end up frustrating everyone.

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or stripes?