Outline Number Plates

Introducing the Outline 4D number plate, our most distinctive 4D style yet. These plates are built from a layer of 3mm black acrylic characters, with a second 3mm black acrylic outline layer bonded on top. Solid black throughout, permanently fixed, and manufactured to BS AU 145e.

The result is depth you can see from across a car park and a crisp defined edge that catches light along every character. Standout looks, standard compliance.

Wondering whether raised characters affect camera readability? They don't, and we've explained exactly why in our complete guide to 3D and 4D number plate legality, covering BS AU 145e, ANPR and infrared, and what genuinely makes a plate illegal.

Size

The standard UK size for number plates is 520mm by 111mm. Please note this will vary if you opt for a shortened plate option. Shortened plates are cut down to a unique size depending on the length of your registration. Unlike our competitors, we cut these to whichever size you require rather than using pre-made short plates. We produce them to have a 16mm margin on all edges of the number plate, which leaves a nice even clean finish to your plate. If you require a specific size, please state this in the special requests box after clicking purchase. Legally, your number plates cannot have a margin any less than 11mm.

Manufacturing and delivery times

Orders will be manufactured and dispatched from Monday to Friday.

Tracked 24: Your plates will be dispatched within 24 hours after you provide evidence of ownership of the registration. Royal Mail aims to deliver these parcels the next day, so this is our quickest turnaround.

Tracked 48: Your plates will be dispatched within 24 hours after you provide evidence of ownership of the registration. Royal Mail aims for a two day delivery timeframe on Tracked 48.

Tracked 24 and Tracked 48 both provide a tracking number, which we will email to you, so you will know where your order and your documents are at all times on their way back to you.

Please note we do not dispatch on a Sunday or during Bank Holidays, so please adjust your expectations accordingly. We apologise for any inconvenience.

Legality

Road legal plate styles.

By law we include our company name, postcode and BS AU number on the plate. The font style for all our plates is Charles Wright, the mandatory UK road font. DVLA confirms that three-dimensional characters are legal and compliant with road law. This includes '4D' plates, as 4D is only an industry term for characters that are still classed as three-dimensional.

Every Outline plate leaves us with solid black characters at the legally required height, width, stroke and spacing, on fully retroreflective sheeting, permanently bonded and marked to BS AU 145e.

Legal document requirements

When buying number plates online, the only way to operate fully legally is for the Registered Number Plate Supplier to see the original physical documents in person. If you aren't local to us in County Durham, you will need to send us the documents in the post. The process is simple and the steps to take are explained in depth after you have placed your order. Once we have received your documents, we will produce your number plates and return the documents securely along with the number plates, using a tracked postal service.

What if I want show plates?

Utopia Plates does not sell show plates, as they could be used on the road even where the manufacturer sells them on the basis that they will not be. To avoid this, we will not sell show plates. This includes tinted plates, blank plates and plates with non-standard spacing. We will only produce fully road legal plates, with standard spacing exactly as it appears on your V5C.

Can I add a slogan?

We do not add slogans or custom text to our number plates. This is not road legal, and due to our manufacturing process we could not add a slogan even if it were.

Warranty

All of our plates come with a 36 month warranty covering manufacturing defects or naturally occurring issues. We do not cover customer inflicted faults. Please contact us via email or the contact page to get in touch regarding your warranty.

Other plate sizes

We also offer a variety of different sized plates to accommodate different vehicle types and shapes. For more information on these sizes, please select from the links below:

• Square 4x4 (280mm x 203mm)
• Oversized 21x6 (535mm x 152mm)
• 3D Gel Motorbike Plates (300mm x 178mm)
• 4D Motorbike Plates (300mm x 178mm)

Quality control

We only use the highest quality, British manufactured components in the production of our number plates. In addition to this, we employ a stringent quality control process to ensure that all components and finished plates meet our standard for quality. If you follow our social media pages (Facebook and Instagram), you may have seen that we regularly discard any components which fail our quality control inspection, as they wouldn't produce the perfect product that we strive to make. Our company mission is not only to make your vehicle stand out, but for every customer to be completely satisfied with their experience and the quality of their product.

Care note: please exercise caution when washing your Outline plates with a jet wash. Don't direct too much pressure at the lettering outlines.

Fixing kits

We stock and sell fixing kits which have been rigorously tested to ensure they provide the best mounting solutions for attaching your new number plates to your vehicle. We have two options:

• Sticky fixer kits include a pack of 10 industrial strength sticky pads, enough to affix both a front and rear number plate to your car.
• Screw fixing kits include 4 screws, 2 white screw caps and 2 yellow screw caps to blend in with your number plates.

Further information

If you have any more queries, please check out our FAQ page or get in touch using our contact page.