Traffic System Typefaces

[eriks]

These people have obviously taken some print-out and made fonts from it. The font info credits Erwin Denissen, 1999, www.high-logic.com. These are the people that make a product called FontCreator. Judging from this font, I wouldn’t recommend anybody using it. Unless they want to work for some government agency, of course.
This screen grab is from this unofficial version of Transport Medium.

The official Spanish Transport Heavy has decent outlines, why would anybody use an ultra bold weight, especially for white out of blue? There are no counters left.

[russellm]

Hmm. Well, I work for a government agency :¬) and I wouldn't use Font Creator, after having tried the 30 day free download.

-=®=-

[Ralf H.]

The other illustration is from a project I have been working on for the European Community.

Please don't tell me, that the EU is planning to unify the traffic system typefaces!?
I don't want that - even if it would be a good design.

Ralf

[Richard Hards]

I don't know that there is an "official/government" release of Transport as a font.

PDFs of the alphabet can be found here

EDIT: I forgot to mention the URW++ version of the font, which is rather better.

[wim arial]

The official traffic system typefaces in Belgium is SNV-regular or SNV-condensed (SNV: Association Suisse de Normalisation). SNV has a somewhat more squarish design.
SNV Extra Condensed is designed by Verein Schweizer in 1972

[berga83]

It appears (from what I was told by URW++) that the URW++ digital versions of Traffic Type Spain and Transport were created at the beginning of the '80s, for the SIGNUS signmaking system, and that the artwork for Traffic Type Spain was supplied directly by their representative in Spain.

In that period URW++ digitalized many European road sign typefaces under request of their signmaking costumers.

Unfortunately at URW++ there aren't any more information information about the source, the specifications or the designer of Traffic Type.

Quoting the book Signs: Lettering in the Environment: "there is not an official commercial release of the Transport type, except for that of Letraset sheets in the 60s and 70s" (pg. 32 of the Italian version).

[eriks]

Please don’t tell me, that the EU is planning to unify the traffic system typefaces!?

Don't worry – this is only for the electronic signs, what they call Variable Message Signs. I designed the bitmaps before the outline version. That one will be used as headers or other permanent stuff on the display boards.

I would hate to lose the variety on Europe's roads, even though most of the type is bad. But it's still typical for each country.

[Lorcs]

Is Transport used in Australia and New Zealand?

[Richard Hards]

created at the beginning of the ’80s, for the SIGNUS signmaking system
That makes a lot of sense Andrea.

Spandex also had Transport available for their Gerber plotters in the UK in the early 80s.

I seem to recall the fonts were over £100 back then, they came as EPROM modules. I think you could install about six in the 4B.

Sorry Ralf, I seem to have gone a bit OT.

image found at www.betatronics.ch

[russellm]

Yikes!

A IVB.

My office still has one tucked away in the shop. Ran like a tank, but it could only handle 200 characters at a time. The fonts came on chips that plugged into the board. you're right, it could hold six. The day we "went metric", I found you could convert the machine to metric by flipping two tiny switches inside... The result was metric equivalents of imperial units. So I switched it back and we stayed with imperial.

-=®=-

[cuttlefish]

Wow! A vinyl cutter that strips by its self?

[Ralf H.]

Just for laughs:
"One of the most universally used typefaces for signs is Helvetica medium […] Although commendable for its legibility, there are many other sans serif faces which are equally good, and which have more character, for example Akzidenz Grotesk, Arial, Avant Garde, Futura."

From the book "Sign Design Guide"

[berga83]

For anybody interested I just posted some images of the Italian "Alfabeto" and "Alfabeto stretto" from the "Italian Street regulations manual" on my flickr page.

The copy I have is dated 2002, but I am sure that the part concerning the font is still up to date.

[Antonio Cavedoni]

Thanks for the pictures, Andrea. The black version of the Transport typeface we’re using here in Italy is really awful: counterforms are barely visible. I’m looking forward to seeing the results of your research.

[berga83]

Thank you Antonio, the research is in progress, and I am about to start working on the design, very challenging but fun, so I hope i can get something good out of it...
Ciao for now and maybe see you in Modena one day!

[Thingy]

Carretera Convencional as a font in Spanish traffic sign documents
is generally called CCRIGE.
CC being its initials and RIGE I think is the name of the traffic authority.
Autopista though, doesn't seem to get the RIGE tag.

I live in the UK and once bought the URW Transport Medium/Heavy.
They're not authentic [don't follow the deparment for transport drawings]

My preference is the set produced by Magnum
http://www.instant-art.com/pages-fonts/transport-heavy.html

Castcraft do a version called OPTI Transfer

[jasiu]

Polish roadsign font: http://www.psk-poznan.cba.pl/grafika/cz_drogowa.gif
You can download it from here - http://www.psk-poznan.cba.pl/programy/drogowskaz.rar

Has anyone found a digitalized version (latin, cyryllic, other?) of the font used on road signs in USSR, and now in Russia, Ukraine, Lithuania, etc.?

[guifa]

For signage on highways, freeways and normal car-roads (i’m not sure about the technical differences among these kinds of roads) the Autopista font will be used. For conventional streets,

Basically, the autopistas and autovías are what in the US would be called Interstates. They are the roads which are designated with either an A (Autovía, such as A-6) or AP (Autopista, AP-41). The primary difference between these roads is the design standards (APs are newer, with easier curves and more straight areas with better on and off ramps) and that the Autovías are free to use, while the AP charge tolls. Carreteras are equivalent to US-highways or state roads, and are designated with an abbreviation for the province plus a number (e.g. M-30)

The MAIN difference I've seen between the two fonts used in Spain is that Autopista (the font) uses a straight bar tilde over the N in Ñ, whereas the Carretera Convencial uses the squiggly tilde and that Autopista tends to be spaced a little bit looser.

«El futuro es una línea tan fina que apenas nos damos cuenta de pintarla nosotros mismos». (La Luz Oscura, por Javier Guerrero)

[Thingy]

I've just had a look at the versions of
Autopista and Highway E modified
that come with Scanvec Flexisign.
Autopista is a little lighter and
there are some differences in letters,
I've put the most obvious in the following jpg:

Looking at this picture on the Typowiki page posted by Ralf Herrmann:
http://www.typografie.info/typowiki/index.php?title=Bild:Autopista.png
the top of the lowercase d slopes in the opposite direction to Highway Em.
This doesn't happen in the Flexisign version of Autopista,
but can be seen in this alphabet if you look closely:
http://www.bibliocad.com/cad/biblioteca/obras-viales-diques/senaletica/5...

[berga83]

I have just posted on my flickr a map with the origin and routes taken by the two most common typefaces used in road signage throughout the world, Forbes' Highway Gothic and Kinneir's Transport.

Feel free to comment, it is still a work in progress, and all of your advice will be very appreciated!

Thank you,
a.

[aeshoukas]

Hi there! I'm currently on holiday in Greece and quite taken by the common road sign font used here. I can't quite pin-point what it is, but Transport Heavy appears to be closest candidate. Still, it's quite different though - any ideas?

[berga83]

I would say it is not Transport (an official version of which was never relesased for use outside of Great Britain, except for Letraset films), but one of the many copies we can find around the world.

Unlike the Italian Transport, though, this version of Kinneir’s alphabeth seems a lot more freely interpreted, still keeping many similarities with that design.

The most curious aspect of these signs is, in my opinion, the Greek version of the Transport, designed to work with the Latin one but used in a different color and placed on separate signs…probably a bit confusing for drivers!

Does anybody have more precise information about this Greek “Θϱανσποϱτ”?

p.s. Great picture by the way!

[hrant]

Intifadastate:
https://typography.guru/forums/topic/26455-forwarding

Ralf, great compilation so far.

hhp

[Richard Hards]

On the subject of language specific variations of Transport, I'd be interested to find out more about these.

Icelandic

Image from Icelandic Government driving guidance leaflet.

And also this Gaelic italic variant used on bilingual signs in Ireland.

Image from Irish traffic sign manufacturer Rennicks website.

Any inforamtion about digital fonts and links to official sign documentation gratefully received.

Richard

[Richard Hards]

OK, so the eth is a standard character (as is the thorn, also used in Icelandic, but not on this panel), but I'm sorry to say I'd not noticed it before. Is it used anywhere else?

That deals with the Icelandic, but I'm sure I don't recall seeing Gaelic alternates in any of the cuts of Transport I've come across.

Richard