How to Transfer and Paint Letters on Wood

You can easily transfer letters to wood to make a custom sign with font lettering. Follow these steps on how to paint letters on wood perfectly, every time!

Have you ever tried to freehand draw a specific font or design you loved? Does it ever turn out the way you’d like? I’ve tried many times, and my attempts never came close, so I gave up trying and instead use these tricks on how to transfer letters to wood.

The result is a painted DIY wood sign (or any other surface) with beautiful handwriting that perfectly matches the font or design I started with.

In this post you’ll find a step by step tutorial on how to transfer printed text so it can be painted. Plus, I’ll share details on how to enlarge a design to transfer to a large surface for painting.

Once you know this trick, you can make your own custom wood signs with perfect lettering!

Design the Lettering (or find a design)

You may have a pre-made design that you are looking to transfer, or you can also create your own sign lettering by using a free graphic design program like Canva or Picmonkey.

Once you have your design or lettering ready, print it out (if it’s already the correct size) or follow the directions below to enlarge the graphics for a larger project.

(If you don’t need to change the size of your design, skip ahead to the next section on how to transfer letters to paint.

Enlarge the Lettering/Design (if needed)

If the object you are transferring to is smaller than a sheet of paper, you can print your jpeg image onto a standard 8.5″ x 11″ piece of paper.  However, if you are making a large sign, you will need to enlarge the image and print it on multiple pages.

I’ve found the easiest way to enlarge a jpeg image across multiple pages is to use the Windows program called Paint.

1. Open your image in Paint by clicking File -> Open
2. Click File -> Print -> Page Setup
3. Select portrait or landscape, depending on the orientation of your surface
4. Measure the size of your piece to be painted and figure out how many pages you’ll need across the top and how many pages you’ll need down the side
5. Enter those numbers in the Fit to box and click OK
6. Click on File -> Print to print the image

Alternately, you can also adjust the percentage to match the size you need.

1. Click the Adjust to toggle button
2. Type in a percentage to expand your image
3. Use the preview image on the left side of the screen as a guide for how large it will be.
4. To see a full preview of how the image will print across the pages, click OK. Then, go to go into File -> Print -> Print Preview.
5. Click on File -> Print to print the image

After printing, you’ll need to trim the edges on half of the sides so the letters match up across the pages.  A little bit of tape between the pages holds it together to start transferring the graphic to your sign.

Transfer the Printed Graphic

There are four different ways to transfer printed images and fonts on to another surface. For wood signs, my favorite method is the chalk transfer method, but any of these other DIY transfer techniques will also work.

1. Use the side of a piece of chalk and rub it over the back side of the printed paper.
   • If you’ll be transferring the design to wood, white chalk works best.
   • If you’ll be transferring the design to anything white, use yellow or colored chalk.
2. Flip the paper over (printed side up) and lay it on your piece of wood (or other surface). Use a dull pencil to trace over the lettering with pressure (this is transferring the chalk to the surface).
3. Lift the paper after you’ve traced the design and you’ll find a chalk outline of the image.
4. Paint over that chalk with a paint pen or a small brush and paint.

I find it’s much easier to paint clean, neat lettering using a paint pen. I almost always use a paint pen and have different widths to fill in different sizes of letters and patterns.

For very large, block letters to fill in, I outline the letter in paint pen, and then use acrylic paint to fill it in. (Just be sure to use a gloss paint, because most often paint pens have a glossy sheen.)

I’ve used this technique countless times and it works beautifully every time! Scroll –> to see the projects and click to view the full tutorial.

Custom Painted Camper Door

How to Make a Wood Sign with Words

Perfect Chalkboard Lettering

Fall Arrows Sign

To create a wood sign, you can paint on leftover scrap wood or reclaimed wood, or make a DIY sign with a wood frame using plywood. I have a full tutorial on how to make a wood sign with lettering.

I hope this tutorial on how to transfer lettering to wood was helpful! There are so many custom upcycled projects waiting to be created with this technique. Let me know what projects you use it on!