Sign-Tech and signs
Two kinds of signs in 3.3: the wooden signs and writable crates you type a few lines on, and Sign-Tech canvases, built from layers of text, shapes and noise with colours, masks and warps, which paint the town signs.
Signs you write on
These blocks take plain text: up to 50 characters in one box, shown on as many lines as the sign has, wrapped to its width. The box has formatting codes switched off: plain letters only. The Wooden Signs are one recipe (10 Nails and 10 Wood, in your backpack), placed as any of the three sizes; signs and crates can be locked like a storage box.
| Block | Size (blocks) | Lines |
|---|---|---|
 Wood Storage Crate | 1 × 1 | 3 |
 Iron Storage Crate | 1 × 1 | 3 |
 Steel Storage Crate | 1 × 1 | 3 |
 Wooden Sign 1m | 1 × 1 | 3 |
| Wooden Sign 3m | 3 × 1 | 3 |
| Wooden Sign 5m | 5 × 2 | 3 |
Sign-Tech canvases
A Sign-Tech sign is drawn on a canvas (a sign board) or a decal (the picture alone, for walls). The files have 4 sets, each with its own row of sizes, in metres:
| Set | Sizes | From | To |
|---|---|---|---|
| Canvas Signs, Wood | 45 | 1x1 | 6x11 |
| Decal Signs, Wood | 41 | 1x1 | 6x11 |
| Canvas Signs, Corrugated Metal | 45 | 1x1 | 6x11 |
| Decal Signs, Corrugated Metal | 41 | 1x1 | 6x11 |
All sizes: 1x1, 0.75x0.50, 0.75x0.75, 1x2, 1x9, 1x12, 2.4x1.2, 2x1, 2x2, 2x4, 3x1, 3x2, 3x3, 4x1, 4x2, 4x3, 4x4, 5x1, 5x2, 5x3, 5x6, 6x1, 6x2, 6x3, 6x8, 6x11, 7x1, 7x2, 7x3, 7x4, 7x9, 8x1, 8x2, 8x3, 8x4, 9x1, 9x2, 10x1, 10x2, 10x3, 11x1, 11x3, 11x6, 13x1, 13x2.
In 3.3 the four sets are listed only in the developer's creative menu, not in the crafting list: in survival you meet them in towns, where the shop signs and posters of the POIs are built with them.
Layers
| Layer | What it is |
|---|---|
| Group | Holds other layers, so they move, scale, warp and tint as one. A group can tint what is inside it (multiply, blend or override) and soften or thicken its shapes, text or noise. |
| Text | Any text in one of the sign fonts, with its direction, letter spacing, softness and thickness. |
| Polygon | A shape with 3 or more sides, rounded by smoothness (fully smooth is a circle), turned into a star by starify, softened, and drawn filled, inverted, as an outline or as ripples. |
| Noise | Random grunge with a seed, detail, softness, thickness and fade, to weather a sign. |
Every layer has a position, rotation, scale and an RGBA colour (with transparency). Shapes are drawn normal, invert, line, ripple; a group tints its layers by multiply, blend, override and can offset the softness and thickness of all, shapes, text, noise. The fonts of the shipped signs: Dancing Script, LiberationSans, Permanent Marker.
Warps and masks
Any layer (or group) can be bent by up to 4 warps, applied in order:
- Skew slants the layer
- Bulge swells or pinches a spot
- Twirl spins it around a point
- Kaleido mirrors it into slices
- Perspective tilts it in 3D
- Arc bends it along a curve
- Stretch pulls part of it out
- Grid repeats it in columns, rectangles or hexagons (column, rectangle, hex)
Each layer also has a mode:
- Color Only draws the layer in its colour
- Color And Mask draws it and also cuts what comes after to its shape
- Mask Only only cuts: the layers after it show only inside its shape
- Punch Out cuts a hole through the layers below it
Masks and warps nest up to 7 deep each.
The complexity budget
The game adds up how heavy a sign is to draw, and the editor will not save a sign over 600 points. Letters are the expensive part: text alone runs out at about 263 letters. The points, as the game counts them:
| Element | Points |
|---|---|
| Each letter of a text layer (spaces are free) | 2.275 |
| A shape (polygon or star) | 2.875 |
| A circle (a shape at full smoothness) | 1.5 |
| A noise layer | 1.5 |
| … plus per detail level of the noise | 1.1 |
| A moved, rotated or scaled layer (its transform, set and reset) | 1.3 |
| Skew warp | 1.475 |
| Bulge warp | 1.78 |
| Twirl warp | 1.45 |
| Kaleido warp | 1.76 |
| Perspective warp | 1.96 |
| Arc warp | 1.95 |
| Stretch warp | 2 |
| Grid warp (column / rectangle / hex) | 0.5 |
| A masked layer (any mode but colour only) | 0.55 |
A grid warp also adds 1.26 (column), 1.46 (rectangle) or 1.66 (hex). Masked layers add a little more when their mask closes. The editor keeps 100 undo steps.
Sharing
Using a canvas block opens the sign gallery, where you pick a design or make a new one. Each design you save has an ally sharing setting (private, selectable, copyable): private designs only you see and use; allies can put selectable ones on their own sign blocks but not edit or copy them; copyable ones they can also copy, edit and share on.
Signs the game ships
| Sign | Layers | Layer types | Warps |
|---|---|---|---|
| Default Sign | 32 | Polygon, Group, Text | Kaleido, Perspective, Twirl |
| Poopy Pants | 29 | Polygon, Group, Text | – |
| Buy-N-Go | 13 | Polygon, Group, Text | – |
| DP Gas | 12 | Group, Polygon, Text | – |
| Gonuts Donuts | 8 | Group, Text | – |
| Bad & Ugly | 91 | Polygon, Group, Text | Perspective, Twirl, Skew, Bulge, Arc |
| Mask Demo | 43 | Polygon, Group, Text | Twirl, Stretch, Arc, Perspective, Bulge, Kaleido |
| Noise Demo | 57 | Noise, Group, Polygon, Text | Stretch, Twirl, Arc, Perspective, Bulge |
Questions
How many characters fit on a sign in 7 Days to Die?
The sign text box takes 50 characters. The sign shows them on up to 3 lines, wrapped to the sign's width.
Can I use colours or formatting on a sign?
Not on the wooden signs and writable crates: their text box has formatting codes switched off. Colour, shapes and fonts are what Sign-Tech is for.
What is Sign-Tech?
The layered sign system of 3.3: a sign is a stack of text, shape, noise and group layers with colours, masks and warps, drawn on a canvas or decal block. The game ships 8 example signs.
Is there a limit to how complex a sign can be?
Yes: 600 complexity points, about 263 letters, and the editor stops you saving above it. Each layer can carry 4 warps.