- Typefaces Used On North American Traffic Signs
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- Is There An Official Set Of FHWA Series Fonts?
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definition - FHWA_Series_fonts
definition of Wikipedia
The FHWA Series 2000 Fonts Standard Edition is now available in Autodesk® AutoCAD® SHX fonts. Two types: Outlined and, Outlined and hatched (ANSI 31). SHX fonts include all the FHWA Standard Alphabet letters, supported for both upper- and lower-case letter forms. 60 SHX Highway fonts. Explore Expressway designed by Ray Larabie at Adobe Fonts. Expressway is a sans-serif typeface inspired by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s FHWA Series of Standard Alphabets, also known as Highway Gothic. Series A Signage JNL Webfont & Desktop font MyFonts. Due to poor visibility at high speeds, Series 'A' was discontinued. At one point lower case characters were added to the various widths of the design, but this typeface revival is based on the original guidelines specified in the 1948 (reprinted 1952) book 'Standard Alphabets for Highway Signs' this was the original name for the FHWA. Highway Gothic (formally known as the FHWA Series fonts or the Standard Alphabets for Highway Signs) is a sans-serif typeface developed by the United States Federal Highway Administration and used for road signage in the Americas, including the U.S., Canada, and Latin American countries, as well as in Asian countries influenced by American signage practices, including the Philippines, China. Sample = The FHWA Series fonts (often informally referred to as Highway Gothic) are a set of sans-serif typeface s developed by the United States.
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Wikipedia
| Category | Sans-serif |
|---|---|
| Designer(s) | Ted Forbes |
| Foundry | N/A |
| Sample | |
The FHWA Series fonts (often informally referred to as Highway Gothic) are a set of sans-seriftypefaces developed by the United StatesFederal Highway Administration and used for road signage in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Australia, Spain, The Netherlands, Turkey, Brazil, Chile, Malaysia and New Zealand. The fonts were created to maximize legibility at a distance and at high speed. Versions known as Highway Gothic or Interstate, which are for sale to the general public, include punctuation marks based on a square shape. However, on signage, the official FHWA Series punctuation is based on a circular shape.
The set consists of seven fonts: 'A' (the narrowest), 'B', 'C', 'D', 'E', 'E(M)' (a modified version of 'E' with wider strokes), and 'F' (the widest). The fonts originally included only uppercase letters, with the exception of 'E(M)', which was used on large expressway and freeway guide signs.
History
The typefaces are officially defined by the FHWA's Standard Alphabets for Traffic-Control Devices, originally published in 1945 (reprinted 1952). Changes to the specifications were published in 1966, 1977, and 2000. The 2000 specifications differ from earlier versions in the shapes of a few letters and in the inclusion of lowercase letters for all alphabet series.
FHWA Series A, B, C, D, E, and F were developed by the Public Roads Administration (which later became FHWA) during World War II. Draft versions of these typefaces were used in 1942 for signs on the Pentagon road network.[1] In 1949–50, as part of a research program into freeway signing carried out by the California Department of Transportation, Series E Modified was developed from Series E by thickening the stroke width to accommodate button reflectors for ground-mounted signs, while a lowercase alphabet was developed to allow mixed-case legend (consisting initially of Series D and lowercase letters) to be used on externally illuminated overhead signs.[2] The lowercase letters, paired with Series E Modified, later became the basis of a national standard for mixed-case legend on freeway guide signs with the 1958 publication of the AASHTO signing and marking manual for Interstate highways.
Series 'A' has been officially discontinued in the U.S., though it continues to be specified for certain signs in New Zealand. In 2004, the FHWA published lowercase letters for all of the typefaces and made changes to the Manual on Uniform Traffic-Control Devices, which allows their use.[3]
Over the next few decades, the new Clearview typeface, also specifically developed for use on traffic signs, is expected to replace the FHWA series on some new signage.[4]
Tobias Frere-Jones designed the typeface Interstate, based on the FHWA series, during the 1990s.[4]
Usage
United States
Typically, one- or two-digit Interstate, U.S. Highway, and U.S. state route signs use the Series D font for the numbers, while signs with three or more digits use either a narrower font (Series B or C) or have smaller numbers in the Series D font. Series F is most commonly used on U.S. speed limit signs, although older signs often use narrower fonts. Signs that show the names of streets usually feature white Series A, B, C or D letters (which may either have all capital letters or a combination of capital and lowercase letters) on a green background (which can also be substituted for other colors, such as blue or red).
An example
By the mid-1990s the FHWA series of typefaces was used as a source of inspiration for a multi-weight print typeface designed by Tobias Frere-Jones of Font Bureau. Frere-Jones made accommodations for smaller print reproduction and Font Bureau released the face under the name Interstate. It has been adopted by many companies for branding; for example, NBC used it for NBC Sports graphics packages from 1997 to 2006, and TV Guide uses the typeface on its cover. Also, the Weather Channel utilized this typeface extensively, both on its weather maps and for its local forecasts. The logo of the premium cable channel Epix also uses a lowercase version of this typeface. The New York Mets use this typeface at Citi Field.
Typefaces Used On North American Traffic Signs
Worldwide
Author Topic: Signs With Design Errors (Read 308784 Times)
The FHWA typefaces are also used on road signs in Canada, Peru (under different series labels), Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia and other countries. Still others, including Mexico, use typefaces that are either derived directly from the FHWA series or very similar in appearance.
In mainland China, the font has been adopted for use in signs on new Chinese national expressways, beginning with the Jingjintang Expressway, which uses the font for the first 17 kilometers in Beijing. In Taiwan, the FHWA series of typefaces are also used on English text.
In the United Kingdom, the font has been adopted for signage by companies such as supermarket Sainsbury's and railway company c2c.
Samples
FHWA Series B
FHWA Series C
FHWA Series D
FHWA Series E
FHWA Series F
Is There An Official Set Of FHWA Series Fonts?
See also
- Clearview (typeface), expected to gradually replace the FHWA typefaces over the next few decades
References
- ^Loutzenheiser, D.W. 'Design of signs for the Pentagon road network.' Proceedings of the Highway Research Board, 1943, pp. 206-35.
- ^Forbes, Theodore W, Moskowitz, Karl, and Morgan, Glen. 'A comparison of lower case and capital letters for highway signs.' Proceedings of the Highway Research Board, 1950, pp. 355-373.
- ^Moeur, Richard (2005-04-22). 'Sign Typefaces'. Manual of Traffic Signs. http://www.trafficsign.us/signtypeface.html. Retrieved 2006-05-18.
- ^ abYaffa, Joshua (August 11, 2007), 'The Road to Clarity', The New York Times Magazine, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/12/magazine/12fonts-t.html?pagewanted=1, retrieved 11 August 2007.
External links
- Standard Alphabets for Traffic Control Devices from the United States Federal Highway Administration (PDF)
- Sign Typefaces from the Manual of Traffic Signs
Downloadable versions
- roads UK—Fonts for many national road systems, including the FHWA series for the US.
- Road Geek—freeware fonts, created by Mike Adams and based on all of Series B through F, plus additional fonts based on highway signage around the world.
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Author Topic: FL 9B (Read 36254 Times)
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