road sign fonts
Road Sign Fonts Traffic signs across the world use various different typefaces, with each country using a particular font or set of fonts. Each font has been developed with the aim of being easy to read by the motorist, both at speed and at a distance.
For the road sign font fans out there, you can now download particular fonts without having to pay for them. Each font is housed in its own individual zip fine, complete with instructions on how to install them, as well as an image showing available characters.
At the moment, all fonts are only available for download onto a Windows PC. It is hoped that Apple Mac versions will be made available soon.
Jump to:
- United Kingdom
- United States of America
- Germany
- France
- Sweden
United Kingdom
TransportThe Transport font series is the principal set of fonts used on traffic signs in the UK. The Medium font has been designed to be used in lighter colours appearing on a dark background, whereas the Heavy font is used with darker colours that appear on a light background.
> Download Transport Medium for use on a PC
> Download Transport Heavy for use on a PC
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Motorway
Motorway Permanent is an extended font used for road numbers, designed to be used on motorway signage - the font only features numbers and a small grouping of letters and punctuation. The Motorway Temporary version has been designed for use on orange-background temporary signage, hence the name.
> Download Motorway Permanent for use on a PC
> Download Motorway Temporary for use on a PC
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Pavement
A font designed to be used on the roads, with an elongated version for roads with higher speed limits.
> Download Pavement for use on a PC
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VMS
This is the format that the letters on Variable Message Signs appear in, when letters and numbers are punched into the Highways Agency computer system. The font determines the number of lights and the position they appear in.
> Download VMS for use on a PC
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United States of America
FHWA Classic SeriesThe FHWA Classic Series is the older style set of fonts found on road signs in the USA. There are six variations of the baseline font, the difference between each individual typeface is the character width. The fonts are being replaced by the newer Clearview typefaces.
Due to the larger number of fonts within this family, they come bundled together in a single package for ease of download.
> Download FHWA Classic Series for use on a PC
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Clearview
The Clearview Series is the new set of fonts that are being introduced onto new road signs in the USA. Like the FHWA font, there are six different widths offered. However there are two sets of six fonts - the B and W series. The B Series is designed to be used in dark colours appearing on a light background (like Transport Heavy in the UK), whilst the W Series is found in light colours on a dark background (like Transport Medium).
To make downloading these fonts easier, they have been bundled into two packages - all B Series fonts are in one folder, whilst all W Series fonts are in another.
> Download Clearview B Series for use on a PC
> Download Clearview W Series for use on a PC
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Parks
The Parks family of fonts is the series that is used by the US National Parks Service on their road signs. The fonts are quite different to each other, yet both are still in use - although New Parks is generally replacing Old Parks as the NPS's principal typeface.
Both fonts are shown below - Old Parks is shown first, with New Parks displayed beneath.
> Download Old Parks for use on a PC
> Download New Parks for use on a PC
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Germany
Engschrift and MittelschriftThese two fonts are the typefaces used on road signs in Germany. They provide condensed and broad-stoke versions for use on various road signs.
Both fonts are shown below - Engschrift is first, with Mittelschrift beneath.
> Download Engschrift for use on a PC
> Download Mittelschrift for use on a PC
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Autobahnen
This is the typeface used to display Autobahn numbers on signage, and comes in two variants dependent on the colour of text and background.
To make downloading these fonts easier, they have been bundled into a single package.
> Download Autobahnen for use on a PC
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France
CaracteresThis is the typefaces used on road signs in France. There are three varieties, each one used to denote different destinations.
To make downloading these fonts easier, they have been bundled into a single package.
> Download Caracteres for use on a PC
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Sweden
TratexThe Tratex family of fonts are the typefaces used on Swedish road signs. The Negversal and Posversal are the primary fonts used on standard colour-background signage (in white or light colours), with the two being very slight variances of each other. Svart is a broader font, used in dark colours on light colour-background signage. Vit is essentially the same as Svart, but the spacing between each character is more pronounced.
To make downloading these fonts easier, they have been bundled into a single package.
> Download Tratex fonts for use on a PC
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These fonts have been made available for free distribution by their respective authors, and are available for non-commercial use (for example personal use, hobby websites etc). Please do not copy them onto your site then attempt to charge for them. If you require these fonts for commercial use, you will need to purchase proper versions of the fonts, as these are free-to-use replicated versions. Fonts are available to buy at MyFonts.
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United Kingdom fonts are courtesy of Nathanial Porter. |