A seating chart puts every guest name and table number on one board at the door. We print them at A1, A0 and 900 × 1200 mm on acrylic, ACM or foamboard, and size the type to read from three metres.
A seating chart is a single large-format sign that lists every guest and the table they have been assigned, displayed near the entrance of a function room so people can find their own place. Most sit between A1 and 900 × 1200 mm. The content is only names and table numbers, so the entire job lives or dies on typography, column structure and how far away the sign can still be read.
Made by Melbourne Trade Signs, a large-format print and signage company on Unit 6/43 Orbis Drive, Ravenhall VIC 3023, in Melbourne’s west. Printed in-house and installed Australia-wide. Phone 0415 743 691.
Venues order them because one board replaces a staff member at the door with a clipboard. The failure mode is predictable. Too many names, set too small, on a sign parked in a bottleneck. Two hundred guests forced onto an A1 board means roughly 6 mm capital heights and a queue that stops moving. Stepping up one size costs far less than the delay it causes.
We print and cut seating charts at our Orbis Drive workshop in Ravenhall, so the substrate, the print and the finishing all happen under one roof. There is no minimum, so a single chart for one Saturday is a normal order. Function centres running the same room every week usually have us hold the layout on file and change only the names between events.
Sizing a seating chart is arithmetic, not taste. Guest count decides how many name lines you need, column count decides how wide each one can be, and the two together set the smallest workable text.
| Guest count | Size that works | Columns | Smallest capitals |
|---|---|---|---|
| Up to 60 | A2 420 × 594 mm | Two | 10 mm |
| 60 to 110 | A1 594 × 841 mm | Three | 11 mm |
| 110 to 170 | 700 × 1000 mm | Three to four | 12 mm |
| 170 to 250 | A0 841 × 1189 mm | Four | 12 mm |
| 250 to 320 | 900 × 1200 mm | Four to five | 12 mm |
| 320 and over | Two panels side by side | Split by surname | 13 mm |
Anything between those is fine, since we cut to order. Size is driven by guest count and column width, not by the frame, so send the final list before you lock in an easel or a hire stand.
Three decisions cover almost every seating chart: what the panel is made of, whether the names are printed or cut vinyl, and how the sign is held up on the night.
Names appear to float, which reads well against a dark wall or draping and badly against a busy background. Use 5mm for anything up to A1 on an easel and 10mm above that, because a large clear panel bows visibly under its own weight.
The safest choice for legibility. A solid or frosted face gives constant contrast wherever the sign ends up, so the chart still reads if the venue moves it in front of a window. Frosted also hides fingerprints far better than clear.
A mirrored sheet with lettering applied to the front face. It photographs well and suits formal rooms, but it reflects the queue standing in front of it, so keep names large and leave more space between lines than you would on white.
The economical option for indoor, single-use charts. Light enough that a lightweight easel holds it, and sharp to print on. It dents on the corners and will not survive a wet garden entrance, so treat it as a one-night item.
Aluminium composite, 3mm, rigid and flat with no bow at large sizes. This is what we recommend for anything at A0 and above, for outdoor entrances, and for venues that want a reusable panel with only the printed insert changing.
Printing gives you full colour, background art, florals and photographs. Cut vinyl lettering gives crisp solid characters applied to clear or mirror acrylic with nothing behind them. Vinyl is the better look on clear; printing is better whenever the design carries colour.
A timber or black metal easel is the standard. Match the easel to the panel: A1 is fine on a light easel indoors, A0 and 900 × 1200 mm need a broad-footed one, and anything outdoors needs weight bags or sandbags on the legs.
Venues with a fixed display wall often prefer a framed panel or standoffs, which frees the floor and removes the tripping risk of easel legs. We can drill mounting holes to your centres, or supply the panel sized to an existing hire frame.
Venues running two or three seated events a weekend want a repeatable process rather than a new design each time. We hold the layout, the venue sends a guest list on the Tuesday, and the board is ready for pickup or delivery before the weekend. Most settle on one house size and one substrate so easels, frames and storage stay consistent across every room they operate.
Planners are usually managing a whole suite: welcome sign, seating chart, bar menu, table numbers and order of events. The chart is the piece with the tightest deadline because the guest list keeps moving. We work from the styling already set for the day, match the substrate across the suite, and quote the whole set at once rather than piece by piece.
Corporate seated events add a layer weddings do not have: sponsor tables, VIP seating and a room plan the organiser is still adjusting on the day of the event. Charts for these are usually A0 or larger on ACM, listed by table rather than surname because attendees arrive as company groups, and often paired with a second printed panel showing where each numbered table actually sits on the floor.
Presentation nights, debutante balls and club dinners are high guest count on a low budget, which usually points to foamboard or a printed panel dropped into a frame the school already owns. These lists tend to arrive as a spreadsheet with inconsistent capitalisation, duplicate entries and a few blank rows, so we clean and standardise the text before proofing rather than typesetting exactly what was sent through.
Send the guest list as a spreadsheet or a document, not a screenshot. Two columns is all we need: name and table. Everything else is layout, and layout is our problem rather than yours.
If all you have is a spreadsheet and a colour you like, that is enough to start. We set the whole chart, send a PDF proof, and mark up anything that looks like a typo before it goes to print.
Seating charts are printed and cut in the same building, so the queue is ours to manage rather than a supplier we chase. Tell us the date the sign has to be at the venue and we will say straight whether that is workable. Pickup from Ravenhall during business hours, delivery across Melbourne metro and regional Victoria, freight interstate if the event is out of state.
For 150 guests, 700 × 1000 mm or A0 is the sensible range, laid out in three or four columns.
At that size each name gets a line of about 12 mm capitals with breathing room between entries. You can force 150 names onto A1, and people do, but the type drops to around 8 mm and guests have to step close and read line by line, which is exactly what slows an entrance down. If the room is tight and A0 will not fit, split the list across two A1 panels instead of shrinking the text.
Around 12 mm capital height for names viewed from two to three metres, and no smaller than 10 mm even in a small room.
The rule of thumb signwriters use is roughly 25 mm of capital height for every 10 metres of viewing distance, but a seating chart is read at close range by people who are moving, often in dim reception lighting, sometimes with a drink in hand. That pushes the practical minimum higher than the maths suggests. Table numbers can be smaller than names, since guests scan for their name first.
Alphabetical by surname is faster for guests and is what we recommend for anything over about eighty people.
A guest scans for their own name, finds a table number beside it, and leaves. Grouping by table looks better and photographs better, but it forces every guest to read the entire board until they spot themselves. Grouping by table works when the room is small, when tables are named rather than numbered, or when the host genuinely wants people to see who they are sitting with.
Yes, but it means a reprint rather than an edit. Ink cannot be lifted off acrylic or ACM.
Because we keep the working file, a change is a text edit and a fresh print, not a redesign, so a late reprint is far cheaper than the original artwork. What we do ask is that the client signs off the proof carefully, since a single misspelt surname is the one error every guest notices. On charts where names are still moving, we hold the file open until the last practical moment and print once.
Acrylic if the sign is being photographed, reused or placed anywhere near weather. Foamboard if it is an indoor, one-night sign and budget matters.
Acrylic has depth and weight, holds an edge, and survives being packed away. Foamboard is light, flat and inexpensive, prints beautifully, and dents if anything knocks a corner. Between them sits 3mm ACM, which is rigid and flat like acrylic but lighter, and the usual answer for large charts that venues want to keep and reuse.
We can supply the panel with an easel, or size the panel to a frame or easel you already have.
Tell us which way round it is when you order. If the chart is going into a hire frame, we need the visible aperture rather than the outside dimension, because frames typically cover 10 to 15 mm all round and that is enough to clip the first column. For outdoor entrances, weight the easel legs. A large flat panel behaves like a sail in even light wind.
The entrance panel that usually sits alongside the chart. Same substrates, same easel sizing, and worth ordering together so both signs match in stock and finish.
See the detail →Clear, frosted, white, black and mirror acrylic across the full suite: welcome, seating, bar menu, order of events and table numbers, all cut and lettered here.
See the detail →The printed program guests take to their seat once the chart has done its job. Folded card or stapled booklets in DL and A5 on uncoated or satin stock.
See the detail →Browse the full list on our A–Z of everything we print, or see how this fits into signage in Melbourne.
Guest count, table numbers and the date it has to be at the venue. We will size it properly and come back within two business hours.