Sign Artist Rust Plugin
Last modified on Mar 24, 2023 in Rust
By Nathan Young
Overview
Customizing your Rust server can involve lots of potential features, with the most popular one being custom images. This allows you and players alike to make imagery on signs, making it on display for everyone to see. Additionally, generating custom text with unique colors can be done too. Using both of these features can make in-game shops, trading posts, bases, and more become more personalized. However, these are only possible with the Sign Artist Rust plugin, allowing commands with image URLs to upload on signs. The process for installing or using this isn’t well-known, so we’ve made this Apex Hosting tutorial to show you how to easily install and use the Sign Artist plugin on your Rust server.
Installation
- Navigate to Sign Artist on uMod, then press the
Download
button. - Save the file somewhere easily accessible on your computer.
- Head towards your Apex server panel and locate the
Game File
section. - Double-check that this area has
Rust
selected, as it’s required.Important: Ensure you’re using the correct Server Profile for this process.
- After confirming your panel is running the game, click
FTP File Access
near the top left. - Login with your password, then locate and enter the
oxide
directory. - From here, continue towards the
plugins
folder and pressUpload
at the top left corner. - Proceed to drag and drop the downloaded file into the respective area.
- Wait for this to reach
100%
, then return to the main panel. Restart
the server to apply the changes, then join to confirm everything works.
Rust plugins only work if uMod is active, which is already enabled by default in Customizations on the panel. However, double-checking this is suggested if you notice any problems.
Getting Started

After installing the plugin, you’ll want to run an oxide permission command from your Console on the server panel. This allows you to start uploading images to signs, as it’s giving your account access to Sign Artist. With this in mind, enter the following command: oxide.grant user [name/steamID] signartist.url. Upon doing this, you’re prepared to begin using the plugin. We’ll cover all the commands and permissions you can use, plus provide a few examples to showcase what can be done. As for the plugin’s settings, we’ll also be reviewing this to give you a better understanding.
Commands
The main functionality from Sign Artist is its three main commands, allowing you to take full control over your signs. Whether you’re wanting custom generated text or a funny picture, using these features will help. There’s also a restoration aspect, just in case something happens to your signs. Before using any of these, make sure to assign the correct permissions to your account through the oxide command. Without doing this results in the inability to use the plugin.
Command | Permission | Description |
---|---|---|
/sil [url] | signartist.url | Upload an image from a URL to paste on the sign you’re looking at in-game. |
/silt [message] [fontSize] [color] [bgColor] | signartist.text | Generate a text image from the given parameters to apply on the sign you’re looking at. |
/silrestore | signartist.restore | Restores an image on your currently looked at sign that was broken due to Rust updates. |
N/A | signartist.restoreall | Allows to restore every image on signs in your server with the /silrestore all command. |
N/A | signartist.ignoreowner | Allows the player to use /sil and /silt while not having building permissions. |
N/A | signartist.ignorecd | Allows the player to use both /sil and /silt without triggering a cooldown. |
N/A | signartist.raw | Grants the ability to specify the [raw] argument for all commands to ignore the jpeg enforcement, if enabled in config. |
Examples
As previously mentioned above, we’re going to cover some examples to help you understand more about Sign Artist. These are straightforward, but can be confusing at first.

The main feature from the plugin is the ability to use URLs for posting images on signs. Simply copy a picture’s link, then paste it accordingly with the /sil command. These can come from anywhere online, but make sure the file format is a png
or jpeg
. Either one tends to work the best, but feel free to try out other variations. However, you need to look at your sign while you enter the command to get everything working.
If you’re not wanting to use a URL, then try generating custom text instead. This is a bit more complicated than the previous example, as it requires parameters. Use the /silt command and its arguments to customize your sign. In our example, we used the following: /silt TextHere 20 #f54242 #000000
. The color’s format uses HEX codes, which can be found here.

Configuration
For server owners wanting to tweak some of Sign Artist’s settings, review the instructions below. This leads you towards the configuration file in our panel editor, making it an easy process to make changes. Popular edits include increasing the file size or concurrent image downloads. Due to the different possibilities, we’ll briefly go over suggestions for your plugin’s options.
- Log into your
FTP File Access
area from the server panel. - Navigate towards the
oxide
directory, then enter theconfig
folder. - Locate the SignArtist.json file and press
Edit
to the far right of it. - Inside the panel editor, make any necessary changes and press
Save
at the top. - Afterward, return to the main panel and
Restart
the server to apply the edits.
Recommended Settings
Use the following settings in the SignArtist.json file to see if they’re best suited for your server.
"Maximum concurrent downloads": 2,
"Maximum filesize in MB": 1.5,
"JPG image quality (0-100)": 95,
"Enable logging file": true,
"Enable logging console": true,
Common Issues
Unable to Upload Images
In this particular scenario, you’re likely using an invalid file type for the process. Ensure to mainly stick with PNG and JPEG formats, as these are fully supported in the plugin. However, you may have to manually convert the image to one of them to get everything working. Otherwise, if the situation persists, then the likely cause is from a lack of permissions. Confirm you’ve added signartist.url to your account, but it can also be for a rank or group instead. This also applies to custom text signs, so double-check signartist.text is assigned properly.
Settings Aren’t Saving
If after editing the configuration and nothing seems to be working, make sure to Save
and Restart
to apply them. This is how every change gets applied in-game, but sometimes can still result in failure. Assuming this scenario persists, ensure the file’s format isn’t broken. In other words, don’t remove commas or quotation marks since these are critical to the config’s code. The same applies to wordding and other characters, so make sure nothing is abnormal in the file.
My Signs Broke
This typically happens after Rust updates, which can occur often. In these situations, simply use the /silrestore all command to resolve the issue. Although, you must have the signartist.restoreall permission before doing it. This will instantly restore all your signs on the server, making everything appear as normal. Otherwise, you may have to reset the sign by removing and placing it down again.
Useful Links
Sign Artist on uMod
How to Become Admin on Your Rust Server
How to Use Rust Oxide Commands
Adding Plugins to Rust Servers