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The gobo is the small disc inside the projector that carries your logo. The projector is just the light behind it. Which disc you choose decides how your logo actually looks on the wall — more than the wattage, more than the brand of the projector.

There are two kinds, and the right one depends entirely on your artwork.

The difference in one table

	Metal gobo	Glass gobo
How it is made	Your design is physically cut out of a thin steel disc	Your design is printed or coated onto glass
Colour	One colour only — whatever colour the LED is	Full colour, including gradients and photographs
Fine detail	Limited by how thin a line can be cut	Holds much finer detail
Enclosed shapes	Need small bridges to hold them in place	No such limitation
Cost	Lower	Higher
Best for	Bold logos, text, arrows, safety symbols	Multi-colour logos, detailed artwork, photographs

The bridge problem, explained

This is the single thing most buyers do not know before they order, and it is the most common cause of disappointment.

A metal gobo works by cutting your design out of steel so light passes through the gaps. Now think about the letter O. If you cut out the ring, the middle disc has nothing holding it — it falls out.

So metal gobos need small bridges: thin tabs of steel left in place to hold enclosed shapes. They work, but you can see them in the projection as small breaks in the outline.

Letters with enclosed areas — O, A, B, D, P, R, Q, 0, 4, 6, 8, 9 — all need bridges. So does any logo with a shape inside a shape, a circular border, or a closed outline. If your company name is written in a rounded font, a metal gobo will show bridges throughout it.

Glass has no such problem, because the design is applied to a solid surface rather than cut out of it.

Which one does your logo need?

Work through these. Any single “yes” points to glass.

Does the logo use more than one colour, and do those colours matter? Metal cannot do it.
Does it contain a gradient, shading or a photograph? Metal cannot do it.
Does it have fine text — a tagline, a website address, small print? Metal will lose it.
Is it a rounded or script typeface with many enclosed letters? Metal will show bridges through it.
Is it a detailed emblem with thin internal lines? Metal will thicken or drop them.

If every answer is no — a bold single-colour wordmark, a simple symbol, an arrow, a safety pictogram, “CAUTION FORKLIFT” on a warehouse floor — a metal gobo is the correct and cheaper choice. There is no advantage to paying for glass in that case.

Why gobo projectors have no resolution

Buyers often ask what resolution a gobo projector has, and the honest answer is that it does not have one.

A video projector — the kind in a meeting room — has a chip made of pixels. 1920 x 1080, or 4K. That is resolution: how many dots it can draw.

A gobo projector has no pixels at all. There is no chip and no digital image. It is a lamp shining through a stencil. Asking its resolution is like asking the resolution of a torch shining through a cut-out shape.

So if a supplier quotes you “1080p” or “4K” for a gobo projector, they are either confused or describing a different product. It is a useful thing to catch, because it tells you how well they know what they are selling.

What actually decides sharpness, in order of importance:

The gobo disc. Glass holds detail that metal cannot. This is the closest thing to “resolution” in this product.
The lens. A cheap lens softens every edge regardless of the disc. This is where budget units cut cost.
Focus. Set for the actual mounting distance. Obvious, and still the most common installation fault.
How much you enlarge it. The disc is a few centimetres across. Blowing that up to a three-metre image magnifies every imperfection, exactly like enlarging a photograph. A bigger projection is always slightly softer.

What lumen figures really mean

The same honesty applies to brightness. Lumens measures light coming out; watts measures electricity going in. They are not the same, which is why two 100W projectors can differ substantially.

But for a gobo projector there is a catch nobody mentions: the lumen figure quoted is almost never the light that lands on your wall. The gobo disc is a stencil — it blocks everything except your logo shape. If your design covers a fifth of the disc, roughly a fifth of the light gets through, and the lens loses more.

Which produces a genuinely surprising result: the same projector is brighter or dimmer depending on your logo. A bold, simple design lets far more light through than a fine, detailed one.

So simplifying artwork wins twice. It projects sharper, and it projects brighter.

Be careful with very large lumen claims. If a supplier’s figures work out to exactly the same lumens-per-watt across every model in their range, that is arithmetic rather than measurement — someone multiplied the wattage by a number. Real measured output varies with the chip, the lens and the cooling.

We quote throw distance rather than lumens, because throw distance is the number that actually answers your question.

Preparing artwork that projects well

Send vector artwork if you have it — an AI, EPS, PDF or SVG file. It scales without losing definition.
High contrast wins. Projection is light and no-light. Subtle tonal differences that look good on a screen disappear on a wall.
Drop the tagline. Small text below a logo is the first thing to become unreadable at distance. Project the mark, not the paragraph.
Consider the surface. A textured or dark wall absorbs light. A smooth, pale surface gives the sharpest, brightest result.
Send it before you order. We will tell you which disc your artwork needs, and whether it should be simplified — before it is cut, not after.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a glass gobo and a metal gobo?

A metal gobo has your design physically cut out of a thin steel disc, so light passes through the gaps. A glass gobo has the design printed or coated onto glass. Metal is cheaper and suits bold single-colour logos and text. Glass costs more and handles colour, gradients and fine detail that metal cannot reproduce.

Which gobo should I choose for my company logo?

Choose glass if your logo uses more than one colour, contains gradients or a photograph, includes fine text such as a tagline, or uses a rounded typeface with many enclosed letters. Choose metal if it is a bold single-colour wordmark, a simple symbol, an arrow or a safety pictogram — there is no benefit to paying for glass in those cases.

Why does my metal gobo show small breaks in the letters?

Those are bridges. A metal gobo is cut out of steel, so an enclosed shape such as the middle of a letter O has nothing holding it in place and would fall out. Small tabs of steel are left in to hold it, and they appear in the projection. Letters like O, A, B, D, P and R all need them. A glass gobo has no bridges because the design sits on a solid surface.

What resolution does a gobo projector have?

It does not have one. A gobo projector has no pixels and no digital image — it is a light shining through a stencil, so resolution does not apply. Sharpness is decided by the gobo disc, the lens quality, the focus, and how much the small disc is enlarged to reach your projection size. A supplier quoting 1080p or 4K for a gobo projector is describing a different kind of product.

How many lumens does a gobo projector need?

Lumen figures are a poor guide for gobo projectors, because the quoted number is usually the raw LED output before the gobo disc blocks most of it. The same projector is brighter with a bold logo than with a detailed one, since more light passes through. Throw distance and ambient light are far more useful for choosing a wattage.

Do glass gobos last as long as metal ones?

Both are durable in normal use inside a properly cooled projector. The choice should be driven by what your artwork needs rather than by expected lifespan.

Can I change the gobo later?

Yes. The disc is a consumable and swapping it is straightforward, which is the main advantage of projection over a printed board — the projector stays and only the small disc changes when your branding or campaign does. Ask any supplier what a replacement disc costs and how long it takes before you order.

Send us your artwork

Email your logo and tell us the projection distance and roughly how large you want the image. We will tell you which disc it needs, whether anything should be simplified, and what it will cost — including saying when the cheaper metal disc is the right answer.

See the range on our shop page, compare models on the comparison guide, check costs on the price guide, or contact us.

Glass vs Metal Gobos