• Share
  • ?
  • Profiles ▼
  • Communities ▼
  • Apps ▼

Blogs

  • My Blogs
  • Public Blogs
  • My Updates

This community can have members from outside your organization. Behind the pixels

  • Log in to participate
8a10b5cd-53d2-417a-bde2-2d8bca03d4c2 Blog

▼ Tags

▼ Similar Entries

Random strings

Blog: BigFix Releva...
brolly33 2700049USE
Updated
1 people likes thisLikes 1
No CommentsComments 0

303.js -- testing br...

Blog: HermannSW
HermannSW 2700006U54
Updated
0 people like thisLikes 0
No CommentsComments 0

Using /dev/urandom i...

Blog: Dave's Blog
DaveMarquardt 2700028146
Updated
0 people like thisLikes 0
CommentsComments 4

New YouTube video - ...

Blog: Asset Managem...
DavidLeftwich 20000003R2
Updated
0 people like thisLikes 0
No CommentsComments 0

Data explosion??? Co...

Blog: Storage ISV
MandarVaidya 270004UATR
Updated
2 people like thisLikes 2
CommentsComments 2

▼ Similar Ideas

Importance of settin...

Ideation Blog: IBM PureData-...
DeepashriKrishnaraja 270001C7Y3
Updated
Votes 2 CommentsComments 5

▼ Archive

  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010

▼ Blog Authors

Behind the pixels

View All Entries
Clicking the button causes a full page refresh. The user could go to the "Entry list" region to view the new content.) Entry list

1667 and a lot of time on my hands

VictoriaO 06000145NY | | Tags:  clearview random highway fonts font ‎ | 4 Comments ‎ | 5,814 Views

That was the total mileage that we drove when going to Magnolia Springs, AL for my sister-in-law’s wedding and back to Holly Springs, NC. Aside from there being some “rules” that were set (not by me, mind you – no music, stopping every two hours, etc), I had a LOT of time on my hands. 060210-donmeeker

Now – I’m not sure you guys would notice, but being a visual person, I noticed a difference in the fonts used on highway road signs from state to state. Fascinating, right? Yeah – I know – no need to say anything. :)

So it made me want to do some research on this, and if there was a font used – what it was, and why the change?

In my searching I stumbled upon this article by Joshua Yaffa of the New York Times. Yes, it was written a LONG time ago (2007), but it’s still interesting. The picture to the right is by Don Meeker and shows the difference between what was and what will be.

The font series that is currently used, but slowly being phased out, is called FHWA Series fonts, which is fondly, but not officially known as Highway Gothic. It’s a series of seven fonts developed by the US Federal Highway Administration and originally published in 1945.

The fonts (A – F, with a modified E makes seven) are used around the world in its various versions. FHWA Series font A has been discontinued in the United States, as it was the narrowest of the seven and hard to read. Below is a sample (found on Wikipedia) of a few different fonts currently used in the United States. Look at Series B – Series A is narrower than that – so you can understand why it was discontinued state side (although it’s still used in countries like New Zealand, where they have some REALLY long names).

060210-fhwa 060210_3

So this font was good and was used until 2004, when the Federal Highway Administration approved interim the use of the new font, Clearview by Don Meeker. Why develop a new font, when the other was working for the last 60+ years? Well – it had to do with the legibility when it was dark and the halo affect from the 3M tape used to make it reflective. When you make it reflective, it blooms, and what was crisp edging become almost indiscernible fuzzy clouds of letters (image to the right – from NYT slide show – What’s your sign?) Never thought of that while you were driving at night, did you? I know I didn’t.

060210_4

The image to the left shows the comparison of the commonly used FHWA Series E-modified overlaying the comparable Clearview 5-W (from the same NYT slide show). There you can see the difference. The white is taller, and larger open spaces at font terminations and open spaces.

How cool is that??? Something as simple as a font used on highway road signs. Really, sometimes it doesn’t take much for me.

You should start to see this font being used as 20 states (as of 2007, so more than likely more than that now) will be using this font as they update/replace highway signage. Don’t be surprised to see this font popping up elsewhere in corporate marketing as this font has more applications than just high way signage.

  • Add a Comment Add a Comment
  • Edit
  • More Actions v
  • Quarantine this Entry
Notify Other People
notification_ex

Send Email Notification

Quarantine this entry

deleteEntry
duplicateEntry

Mark as Duplicate

  • Previous Entry
  • Main
  • Next Entry
Feed for Blog Entries | Feed for Blog Comments | Feed for Comments for this Entry