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Highway Gothic

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Highway Gothic
CategorySans-serif
Designer(s)Ted Forbes
FoundryN/A
Date released1948
Sample

The Standard Alphabets For Traffic Control Devices, (also known as the FHWA Series fonts and unofficially as Highway Gothic), is a sans-serif typeface developed by the United States Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). The font is used for road signage in the United States and many other countries around the world. The typefaces were developed to maximize legibility at a distance and at high speed. Derivative fonts include Interstate and Overpass.

The typeface has 6 fonts, from narrow to wider strokes:

  • Series B 2000
  • Series C 2000
  • Series D 2000
  • Series E 2000
  • Series E Modified 2000 ("Series E" but with wider strokes)
  • Series F 2000

History

The typefaces are defined by the FHWA's Standard Alphabets for Traffic Control Devices, originally published in 1948, and 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 through 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] Between 1949 and 1950, as part of a research program into freeway signing carried out by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), 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 American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) signing and marking manual for Interstate Highways.

Series "A" has been officially discontinued in the United States due to poor legibility at high speeds, 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] The first font only included uppercase letters, with the exception of "Series E(M)", which was used on large expressway and freeway guide signs.

There was an expectation that over the next few decades, the new Clearview typeface, also specifically developed for use on traffic signs, would replace the FHWA series on some new signage.[4] In 2016, the FHWA announced that it was rescinding its 2004 interim approval of Clearview in the United States. While existing Clearview signs could stay up, new signs would have to go back to using Highway Gothic.[5] In June 2016, a bill challenging this decision was introduced in the United States House of Representatives, which would have ordered the FHWA to reinstate the interim approval for Clearview.[6] This bill passed as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018.[7] The Federal Highway Administration makes no recommendation or endorsement of the Clearview typeface with the reinstatement of their 2004 interim approval.

Tobias Frere-Jones designed the typeface Interstate, based on the FHWA series, during the 1990s.[4] Overpass is an open-source replacement for Interstate commissioned by Red Hat.[8] PBS, an American television network, between 2009 and 2019 used a custom derivative called, "PBS Explorer".[citation needed]

Parachute Type Foundry designed the PF Grand Gothik Variable typeface, which also based on the FHWA Series typeface, with OpenType features.[9][10]

Parachute Type Foundry also designed the PF Highway Sans typeface, which also based on the FHWA Series typeface.[11][12]

Tom Oetken designed the free-to-download for commercial and personal use Traffic typeface, which also based on the FHWA Series typeface.[13]

Barry Stock released a direct literal transfer of the FHWA Series fonts B to F to OpenType format, along with a collection of intermediate interpolations and percentage-based letter spacing, which he kept in the public domain.[14] The specifications for the design of signs in the Standard Highway Signs manual use a percentage system, which differs from the kerning/tracking adjustments of desktop publishing software. There are 13 variations of each font, from 0% spacing (the default for the design) to minus/plus 50%, with an additional minus/plus 100% font to allow blending of any desired percentage.

Otherwhere Collective designed the Highway VAR variable typeface, which also based on the FHWA Series typeface.[15]

Ray Larabie also designed the Expressway typeface, which also based on the FHWA Series typeface, which is released through his standard freemium desktop license and Adobe Creative Cloud.[16] His earlier freeware font Blue Highway was a looser interpretation, which he placed into the public domain in April 2024.[17]

Usage

United States

An example road sign

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 E and F is most commonly used on U.S. speed limit signs, although older signs often use narrower fonts. Street name signs usually feature white Series B, C or D letters on a green background, which can be substituted for other colors, such as blue or brown. They may have all capital letters or a combination of capital and lowercase letters. Freeway guide signs use Series E(M) on said backgrounds.

On white (regulatory), orange (construction) and yellow (warning) signs, black letters and numbers are used instead. Georgia uses both Series C and D fonts for the Interstate Highway signs until 2012. Beginning in 2016 when the interim approval for Clearview was rescinded, the Arizona Department of Transportation is now using mixed case (non-Modified) Series E for freeway guide signage, mixed case Series D for guide signage on non-freeway roads, and mixed case Series C for street name signs.[18]

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. 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. NESN uses this typeface for on-screen graphics. The New York Mets use this typeface at Citi Field. The gossip magazine InTouch has been using this typeface since 2012. Films such as 8 Mile also use this font. Entertainment Tonight has been using this typeface since its 34th season. The soft drink Sierra Mist used this font on its logo from 2010 to 2014. It was also used in most Hannaford stores. Gridlock!, a pricing game on the American game show The Price Is Right in which the contestant can win a car, also uses the font in its logo and price displays.

Worldwide

Example of an airport runway sign

The FHWA typefaces are also used predominantly on road signs in Canada. The province of Ontario used an in-house modified version until the late 1980s that featured slightly different characteristics, such as flat-top numeral 3's and numeral 1's without a serif. The city of Windsor began replacing its Helvetica signs with Highway Gothic in 2018.[19] Peru (under different series labels), Australia (under the Australian Standard AS1744-1975 typeface), New Zealand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico[20] and other countries use Highway Gothic. Still others use typefaces that are either derived directly from the FHWA series or very similar in appearance. There are a few of them in South Africa, Lesotho, Colombia, the Philippines, and Thailand.

In Portugal, a variant of Highway Gothic—the Rodoviária typeface—was used on road signs since the 1970s until the introduction of a new signage model in 1994–1998. It is still used in the road signs of Macau (written in Portuguese).

In Argentina, new road signs based on the Manual de Señalamiento Vertical—Edición 2017 recently used the FHWA typeface.

In India, the FHWA typeface used for highway shields only while Transport used for road signs.

In mainland China, newer road signs use the FHWA typeface alongside Helvetica Bold for alphanumeric text.

In Taiwan, the Arial Bold used alongside FHWA Series E for English text.[21]

A bus lane road sign in Indonesia, using Highway Gothic

Indonesia formerly used the typeface from 1993 until 2014, regulated by Ministry of Transportation's law No. 62 year 1993.[22] However, in 2014, Ministry of Transportation passed a regulation to introduce new road signs, being replaced with the new Clearview typeface.[23]

In Spain, Series E is the base for Autopista typeface, used on Spanish motorways and freeways (Autopistas/ Autovias).

The Netherlands uses a derivative of the FHWA Alphabet Series typeface designed by the ANWB and the Dutch highways and waterways authority. The original set included two of the six series in the original typeface—RWS-Ee (wide, based on Series E (M)) and RWS-Cc (narrow, based on Series C) or ANWB-Ee (regular) and ANWB-Cc (condensed). Since 1997 the signs placed by the ANWB have used a new font called ANWB-Uu. Signs of other manufacturers continued using the old fonts. Since 2015 the ANWB-Uu font is not used any more on new signs; it has been replaced by RWS-Ee and the newly-designed RWS-Dd (based on the FHWA series D).

The Interstate typeface, clearly inspired by Highway Gothic, designed by Tobias Frere-Jones, has been used by various companies for signs and other graphic design elements. Examples include the United Kingdom, where the font has been adopted for signage by companies such as supermarket Sainsbury's and railway company c2c. In Russia, Channel One used this font for its clock ident from 1996 to 2000.

Variants of the font are used in Turkey, Brazil, and Saudi Arabia.

Samples

FHWA Series B

FHWA Series C

FHWA Series D

FHWA Series E

FHWA Series E Modified

FHWA Series F

See also

References

  1. ^ Loutzenheiser, D.W. (1943). "Design of Signs for the Pentagon road network". Proceedings of the Highway Research Board. pp. 206–35.[full citation needed]
  2. ^ Forbes, Theodore W.; Moskowitz, Karl & Morgan, Glen (1950). "A Comparison of Lower Case and Capital Letters for Highway Signs". Proceedings of the Highway Research Board. pp. 355–373.[full citation needed]
  3. ^ Moeur, Richard (April 22, 2005). "Sign Typefaces". Manual of Traffic Signs. Retrieved May 18, 2006.[self-published source]
  4. ^ a b Yaffa, Joshua (August 11, 2007). "The Road to Clarity". The New York Times Magazine. Retrieved August 11, 2007.
  5. ^ Nadeau, Gregory G. (January 25, 2016). "Notice of Termination of Interim Approval IA-5". Federal Register. Vol. 81, no. 15. Office of the Federal Register. pp. 4083–4084. Retrieved January 31, 2016.
  6. ^ Diaz-Balart, Jose (June 7, 2016). "Report 114-606: Report Together with Minority Views [To Accompany H.R. 5394]" (PDF). 114th Congress 2d Session. United States House of Representatives. p. 31. Retrieved September 26, 2016.
  7. ^ Knopp, Martin C. (March 28, 2018). "Information: MUTCD – Interim Approval for Use of Clearview Font for Positive Contrast Legends on Guide Signs (IA-5)—Reinstatement [HOTO-1]" (PDF). Federal Highway Administration. Retrieved April 15, 2018.
  8. ^ "Red Hat releases free/libre Overpass font family". libregraphicsworld.org.
  9. ^ "PF Grand Gothik Variable on Behance". behance.net. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
  10. ^ "PF Grand Gothik Variable". Parachute Fonts. Retrieved January 26, 2022.
  11. ^ "PF Highway Sans on Behance". behance.net. Retrieved January 26, 2022.
  12. ^ "PF Highway Sans". Parachute Fonts. Retrieved January 26, 2022.
  13. ^ "Traffic typeface". dafont.com. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
  14. ^ "Barry Stock Fonts". Fontspace. February 15, 2023. Retrieved July 11, 2023.
  15. ^ "Highway VAR". Otherwhere Collective. Retrieved August 6, 2022.
  16. ^ "Expressway typeface". Typodermic Fonts. Retrieved April 10, 2023.
  17. ^ "729 Typodermic Fonts Released Into the Public Domain". Project. Retrieved May 27, 2024.
  18. ^ "Arizona Manual of Approved Signs". Arizona Department of Transportation. Retrieved February 9, 2016.
  19. ^ "Meet the man who makes Windsor's new 'gothic' street signs". CBC News. Retrieved February 12, 2018.
  20. ^ "Chapter 8: Letras y números para señales" (PDF). Manual de dispositivos para el control del tránsito en calles y carreteras (in Spanish) (5th ed.). Mexico: Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes. 1986. pp. 425–486. ISBN 968-803-140-2.
  21. ^ 路政司 (April 12, 2018). "電子公路監理網法規檢索系統-法規資訊-道路交通標誌標線號誌設置規則". Retrieved April 12, 2018.
  22. ^ "Ministerial Regulation Number 62 of 1993". Indonesia: Minister of Transportation.
  23. ^ Ministerial Regulation Number 13 of 2014 about Traffic Signs. Ministry of Transportation of the Republic of Indonesia. Retrieved February 7, 2015.
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