1950s building sign (Heath Court)

[JasonMC]

Hi all

Image is of an entrance sign to a 1950s/60s block of flats (standoff aluminium letters I think).

I'm modernising signage and would like to match the original.

It's clearly a slab serif, can anyone help identify?

Follow up, is anyone aware of any free-to-use typefaces I could use (for printed signs)?

Massive thanks!

[Kevin Thompson]

Seems to be based on Egyptian Expanded (1850, Miller & Richard, Edinburgh) revived as King Tut by Canada Type. You’ll have to open up some of the gaps (the E, the C), but otherwise not much work to make King Tut match your sample.

[JasonMC]

Thanks for such a swift reply!

[Kevin Thompson]

You’re welcome.

And to answer your follow up question, there are a number of good open-source type foundries or collections on the web:

google.com/fonts

This site’s very own free font list.

fontlibrary.org

The free section of fontfabric.com

theleagueofmoveabletype.com

omnibus-type.com [many overlaps with Google Fonts]

collletttivo.it

Libre fonts by Womxn [some overlap with other sites]

velvetyne.fr

[Riccardo Sartori]

Also Font Squirrel.

And, for ease of search, GooFonts: Google Fonts by tag.