What font do us road signs use?
Table of Contents
What font do us road signs use?
Highway Gothic
Standard Alphabets for Traffic Control Devices, more commonly referred to as Highway Gothic, is now the only approved font for the design of traffic signs.
Which states use Highway Gothic?
Highway Gothic or Clearview?
| State or Province | Used and Where |
|---|---|
| Arkansas | Yes, statewide |
| British Columbia | Yes |
| California | No, though a few exceptions are found: I-5 in Orange County, city street signs |
| Colorado | No, but used in Colorado Springs |
How did Donald Meeker altered the Federal Highway font?
Meeker, O’Hara and Montalbano redrew the letterforms in Clearview specifically to counter bad road conditions. They eliminated “light traps” or tiny notches in joints of the letterforms and cleaned up the letters’ shapes to mitigate the halo effect at night, due to the sign’s reflective surface.
Who designed Clearview font?
In fact, two men have been waging a two-decade insurgency in the world of highway fonts. Designers Don Meeker and James Montalbano created a font called Clearview to replace Highway Gothic.
What is the font for Harry Potter?
The free Harry Potter font is called “Harry P” and was created by an artist named Graham Meade with Phoenix Phonts, based in Australia.
What is the new font for US Highways?
Just 12 years later, the FHWA is changing course: Highway Gothic is the only font for U.S. highways going forward. The announcement took Donald Meeker by complete surprise. Meeker is one of the designers responsible for the Clearview font (along with James Montalbano).
What is the best font for road signs?
But in one or another of its various versions (A, B, C, D, E, E Modified, and F, from narrowest to thickest), Highway Gothic has been the mother tongue of our vehicular lives. It’s seeped into our unconscious by way of ubiquity, being the only approved font for road signage.
Can new fonts help older drivers read from a distance?
As it turned out, the same solutions that helped older drivers read from a distance were the same as those that helped reduce the negative effects of halation. The biggest distinction between Highway Gothic and Clearview is that the new font has larger counter spaces and an increased x-height.
Should the FHWA use Clearview font on guide signs?
By ending its “ Interim Approval for Use of Clearview Font for Positive Contrast Legends on Guide Signs ,” the FHWA reversed its position on Clearview, a font developed to improve highway-sign legibility on the roads.