The Big Banner Company in Pattaya, Thailand manufactures in the workshop, custom made Light Box Signs or otherwise known as Back Lit Signs.
A Lightbox Sign is a single or double sided Illuminated Sign. We use fluorescent tubes suspended inside the Light Box to provide an invisible light source. The shape of the Light Box can be square or rectangular or even circular.
There are two types of Sign Making materials that create the same effect – using either Sumiplex Plastic as a mounting surface or a PVC canvas material.

The Sumiplex only comes in 8ft by 4 ft sheets so there are limitations as to the size of Light Box you can create with out the need for a join ( our opinion is a join looks unsightly , the problem being when you open the lights , a dark shadow behind where it has been joined , is clearly visible ) . The advantage of using Sumiplex is that you can sometimes re Sign Write the old plastic – i.e. You take over an existing business and want to change the name but keep the existing Signs)
The plastic sits in a groove in the Light Box and is easily removed by simply taking off the end panel and sliding out the plastic, without the need to removing the Light Box and disconnecting the electric supply.

If you wish to create a Light Box that is larger than 8ft by 4ft, you need to use the PVC vinyl material which comes in lengths of up to 100 meters ! .( plenty big enough for the average business owner ) .
Although per square foot the cost of the vinyl material is cheaper than the plastic, it is very labor intensive to fix the vinyl to the Light Box frame.
The process involves first making a simple metal frame, then installing the fluorescent tubes, and then stretching the vinyl over the frame and fixing with hundreds of rivets. If you don’t get it right first time and end up with *ripples* because you haven’t stretched it enough, you need to drill out every rivet and refix which takes a very long time.

Ok, now we have covered the 2 options of making the standard boxes, there are 3 options of actually Sign Writing.
The first option is using a plotting machine which cuts out the shape of words / letters / numbers from rolls of pre colored material.
The advantage of using this material is that the colors are impregnated into the material and last a very long time before the color starts to fade.
The disadvantages are it limits how creative you can be when designing the Sign, i.e. no shadows or blending of colors and no photographic images
The other option is using a large format printing machine to print the entire Sign with Eco Solvent Inks resistant to UV and water on an adhesive photographic quality material and then fix that to the plastic - the disadvantage is you are using inks which although specially designed and manufactured for the purpose will fade much more quickly in sunlight than the rolls of impregnated material.
Or you can print straight onto the stretched vinyl material we talked about earlier using the large format printing machine.
The 3rd option is to use paint, and this is something we do not do. (we only use computer generated technology )

There are exceptions and variations to what I have written but that covers the basics of how the Big Banner Company makes its Lightbox Signs.