MMCXL
A pediment-topped stone plaque with carved lines Room III

The inscription maker

Choose your words and a year, pick a stone, and watch the letters being cut. When it pleases you, download the plaque as an SVG.

Up to three lines of 28 letters. Lower case is capitalised for you.
A number from 1 to 3999, or a Roman numeral. Leave it empty to carve no year.
Frame
Stone
Lettering

Quick starts

Stone plaque preview

Carving your plaque.

How the chisel works

A few conventions, borrowed from old stone, make a modern plaque look right.

How to use it

  1. Write up to three lines. They are set in capitals and sized to fit the stone.
  2. Add a year as digits or as a Roman numeral. The plaque converts it for you.
  3. Choose a frame, a stone and a finish for the lettering.
  4. Download the SVG, or print the plaque.

Assumptions

  • Letters, digits and simple punctuation can be carved. Anything else is left out, and the page tells you what it skipped.
  • Years run from 1 to 3999, the range of plain Roman numerals.
  • The SVG names a serif font stack, not a font file, so lettering shapes vary slightly between devices. Line lengths are fixed so nothing overflows.

Edge cases

  • An empty plaque is allowed, and shows a gentle prompt rather than a blank error.
  • Lines longer than 28 letters and plaques with more than three lines are trimmed, with a note.
  • A year such as 0, -5, 4000 or a malformed numeral is explained and left off the plaque until corrected.

Conventions worth copying

Classical inscriptions set everything in capitals and often separate words with a small raised dot, the interpunct, instead of a space. Their alphabet had no J and used V for both the vowel and consonant sounds, so a Latin Iulius is carved IVLIVS. Tick the classical option to see your words transformed in that way.

Designers: the SVG is a clean starting point, not a finished engraving. Check any date with the converter before it becomes permanent, and have a skilled letterer or engraver finalise the spacing for your chosen medium.