FHWA Series fonts
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 Shown: Series "E" |
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| Typeface | {{{name}}} |
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| Category | Sans-serif |
| Designer(s) | ? |
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The FHWA Series fonts (often informally referred to as Highway Gothic) are a set of sans-serif typefaces developed by the United States Federal Highway Administration and used for road signage in the U.S. and Canada. The fonts were created to maximize legibility at a distance and at high speed, growing out of research by the California Department of Transportation. They are officially defined by the FHWA's "Standard Alphabets for Traffic Control Devices", originally published in the late 1950s. 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.
The set consists of seven fonts: "A" (the narrowest), "B", "C", "D", "E", "E(M)" (a modified version of "E" with wider strokes), and "F" (the widest). Series "A" has been officially discontinued, and is only seen today on older signage.
The fonts originally included only uppercase letters, with the exception of "E(M)", which was used on large expressway and freeway guide signs. In 2004, the FHWA added lowercase letters to all of the typefaces and made changes to the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices allowing their use.[1]
In the mid-1990s the FHWA series of typefaces was redrawn 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 uses it for NBC Sports captions, and TV Guide uses the typeface on its cover. Also, The Weather Channel has utilized this typeface extensively, both on their weather maps and for their local forecasts.
Over the next few decades, the new Clearview typeface, also specifically developed for use on traffic signs, is expected to replace the FHWA series on some new signage.[citation needed]
[edit] Samples
FHWA Series C
FHWA Series D
FHWA Series E
FHWA Series F
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Moeur, Richard (2005-04-22). Sign Typefaces (English). Manual of Traffic Signs. Retrieved on 2006-05-18.
[edit] External links
- Standard Alphabets for Traffic Control Devices from the United States Federal Highway Administration (PDF)
- Sign Typefaces from the Manual of Traffic Signs
- Fonts Used On Road Signs In The USA and Canada
[edit] Downloadable versions
- Interstate is a retail typeface closely inspired by Highway Gothic. Interstate has typographic refinements and tighter spacing, which make it better for general-purpose use, but cause it to no longer match the FHWA specifications.
- Blue Highway - a freeware font created by Canadian typographer Ray Larabie, based on Series E.
- Roadgeek Fonts - freeware fonts, created by Mike Adams and based on all of Series B through F, plus additional fonts based on highway signage around the world.
