Yard sign artwork via API: 3:2 art, a quoted headline, a print check

To make yard sign artwork through an API, request a 3:2 landscape image, keep the message to a few words in quotation marks, and treat the result as art to place into a print template. On Sume that is one POST /v1/images call with aspect_ratio: "3:2" to a model whose catalog lists that ratio, then a pixel check against what your sign printer wants.

Two Sume models suit text-heavy signs. Ideogram's page on fal describes Ideogram 4.5 as a model for posters and logos with accurate text rendering, at $0.03, $0.06 or $0.22 per image by quality (read 2026-10-06, fal). GPT Image 2.5 is listed on fal as OpenAI's default image model, supporting complex layouts and transparent backgrounds, with high as the default quality (read 2026-10-06, fal). Sume ships both as ideogram/ideogram-v4.5 and openai/gpt-image-2.5.

Pick the ratio and the model

3:2 is in the normalized ratio list in the Sume docs, but each model accepts only the values its catalog row lists. Read supported_parameters.aspect_ratio for the model before you send. A sign printer will often state a size in inches; work out the ratio from that, and if it is not a listed ratio, generate the nearest one and crop in code.

One call, a short message

Keep the message to what a driver can read in two seconds: a name, a verb and a short call to action. Pick colors with strong contrast, such as dark type on a bright field, because a sign is read from the road in poor light. Quote it exactly. Leave the phone number or website out of the generated image and add it in your print layout, where you can check each digit.

import os
import requests

body = {
    "model": "ideogram/ideogram-v4.5",
    "prompt": (
        'Landscape yard sign for a spring garden sale. Large headline '
        '"PLANT SALE" in dark green on a bright yellow field, a simple '
        'tulip illustration at the left, empty space at the bottom.'
    ),
    "aspect_ratio": "3:2",
    "quality": "medium",
    "resolution": "2K",
}
r = requests.post(
    "https://api.sume.com/v1/images",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['SUME_API_KEY']}"},
    json=body,
    timeout=60,
)
print(r.status_code, r.json()["data"][0]["url"] if r.status_code == 200 else r.text[:300])

Check before you order

Download the file and check its pixel size. If your printer wants a certain pixel width at the sign's physical size, divide pixels by inches to see what resolution you actually have; signs are viewed from a distance, so a lower resolution is usually fine, but ask the printer.

Keep the safe area in mind: leave margins so a stake hole or a trimmed edge does not cut the headline. Ask for empty space in the prompt, then confirm it on the image. A local business can reuse the same approved layout for every seasonal sign, editing only the quoted words, so the second and third signs cost less thinking and about the same money as the first. If the first result puts text too close to an edge, re-run with a clearer instruction about margins instead of editing the file.

Questions to ask the sign printer

Printers differ, so a short list of questions saves a reorder. Ask them before you generate, because the answers set the ratio and the pixel size.

• What pixel size or resolution do you want at the sign's finished size?
• Do you need bleed, and how many pixels or millimetres of it?
• Which file types do you accept, and is there a size limit?
• Is the sign printed in CMYK, and do you convert, or should I?
• Is there a safe area for stake holes, hems or rounded corners?

What to keep in your own system

Store the prompt, the model id, the quality and the output URL beside the order. A yard sign is often reordered, and an edit that changes only a date or a name is cheaper than a new design. Sume's media URLs are Sume-hosted; download and keep a copy of any file you print from.