List of public signage typefaces

This is a list of typefaces used for signage in public areas, such as roads and airports.

TypefaceUsed byNotes
AchemineSNCF, FranceCreated in 2008 to improve station accessibility.
Alfabeto Normale and Alfabeto StrettoItalyAlfabeto Normale ("Normal Alphabet") is a bolder variant of the British Transport typeface.[1] Alfabeto Stretto ("Narrow Alphabet") is a condensed version of Alfabeto Normale, and is used for long names that wouldn't fit otherwise. The typeface Traffic type Spain D,[2] used in Spain, is identical to Alfabeto Normale.
Antique OliveCalifornia Department of TransportationSome regulatory Signs
AustriaAustriaroad typeface, is being phased out since 2013
Bitstream Vera SansDeveloped to replace Taiwanese Highway Gothic typefaces
BrusselineBrussels' public transport company
CalvertTyne & Wear Metro, United Kingdom
CaractèresFranceUsed for road signs in France and in some countries in Africa.
CarreteraGeneral Directorate of Highways in TurkeyProprietary typeface commissioned for this purpose, used on intracity road signs. Highway Gothic is used on intercity and highway signs instead.
CaseyKowloon-Canton Railway Corporation
ClarendonU.S. National Park Service road signs[3]
ClearviewDestination signs of Quebec autoroutes (shields are in Highway Gothic)Developed to replace U.S. FHWA (Federal Highway Administration) typefaces[3]
Deutsche Bahn WLS Deutsche Bahn (German Railways) station signage[4] Developed in close reference to Helvetica
DIN 1451German transport typeface
Czech road signs
Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority
Also used in the Greek motorway network
Drogowskazthe Polish transport typefaceone of a few digitalisations; officially the typeface used in Polish road signs has no defined name
EnigmaticFormerly used for road signs in Japan and South Korea.
Esseltubpreviously used in Stockholm Metro
EurostileCalifornia Department of TransportationSome regulatory signs
FIP signage typefaceGovernment of CanadaA modified version of Helvetica Medium used by the Government of Canada[5]
FF FagoADIFUsed as official font for signage system of all Spanish railway stations owned by the state-owned administrator, ADIF.
FF MetaStockholm Metro, California Department of Transportation, Birmingham Airportsome Mile Marker Signs
FF Transit Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe[6]

Verkehrsverbund Berlin-Brandenburg[7]

Düsseldorf Airport

Société de transport de Montréal[8]

Developed by MetaDesign for Berlin’s public transport company BVG and later adopted by other transport systems. Especially designed for use in public transportation, contains a lot of pictograms for public signage. Based on Frutiger.[6]
Freight SansKempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru, India
Frutiger Swiss road signs

Across the public transport network of Oslo, Norway
Dutch National Railways
BAA Airports in the UK,[9] in the National Health Service in England
Frankfurt Airport
Buenos Aires Subte
Tokyo Metro (English signage)
Amtrak signage[10]
Signage at most PANYNJ airports
Amsterdam Airport Schiphol
Budapest Public Transport Authority

FHWA Series fonts – sometimes called Highway Gothic.[3]United StatesDeveloped for U.S. road signage, and also used in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Turkey.
Futura BSKItalian railways[11]
Giaothong1 and Giaothong2[12] Vietnam
Gill SansBritish Railways until 1965
Transperth
Also the official font for all the signage system of the Spanish Government.
Helvetica New York City Subway system

Chicago Transit Authority system
Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority system
Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority system
Baltimore Metro SubwayLink
Toronto subway and RT (destination signs)
Madrid Metro

Formerly used in Hong Kong's MTR and Stockholm Metro, has also been used on some Toronto Subway and RT station signage. Less commonly, the typeface has been used on street signs in the United States, most notably in some suburbs of the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area parts of Pennsylvania, and Contra Costa County Transportation Authority.
Helvetica Neueroad signs in Hong Kong
HiraginoEast Nippon Expressway Co., Ltd. (NEXCO East Japan), Central Nippon Expressway Co., Ltd. (NEXCO Central Japan), and West Nippon Expressway Co., Ltd. (NEXCO West Japan)Japan Highway Public Corporation (decided into three NEXCO group companies in 2005) had used its own Japan Highway Public Corporation Standard Text until 2010. Since 2010, Hiragino is used for main Japanese text, and Frutiger for numbers and Vialog for English text.[13]
JohnstonTransport for London
LLM LetteringUsed for road signs in Malaysia.
LTA Identity TypefaceSingapore's Mass Rapid Transit[14]
MetrolisLisbon MetroCustom font for the 1995 rebranding, designed by the Foundry (Freda Sack and David Quay)
MetronPrague MetroCreated in 1973 forby Jiří Rathouský
MotorwayMotorway route numbers in the United Kingdom and Ireland
MyriadHong Kong's Mass Transit Railway
NerisManila International Airport, Manila, Philippinesreplacement for Helvetica on airport signage
NPS RawlinsonUnited States National Park ServiceDeveloped as a replacement for Clarendon[3]
NR BrunelNetwork Rail railway stations in the United Kingdom
ParisineParis Métro
Osaka Municipal Subway
PragmaticaSaint Petersburg Metro since 2002;currently (2010—11) is being replaced by Freeset, Cyrillic variation of Frutiger
Rail AlphabetBritish Rail, British Airports Authority, DSB, NHSDesigned for British Rail in 1964. Still in use on parts of the UK rail network, but mostly superseded elsewhere.
Rotis Semi SansMetro Bilbaoused by its own creator, Otl Aicher, for the corporate design of Metro Bilbao
Rotis Semi SerifStation signs of Sound Transit[15]
Rotis SerifStreet signposts in Singapore
Ruta CLChilean roads.[16]
Seoul Type Seoul Metropolitan Government Developed by the Seoul Metropolitan Government in 2008 for usage in official Seoul Metropolitan Government documents and institutions, signage and public transport within Seoul. The structure was designed to resemble the gradual curves of a traditional hanok roof.
Sispos and SisnegSwedenDesigned by Bo Berndal – old Swedish standard (SIS 030011, 1973) for public road signs, displays, etc.
SNVBelgium, Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Romania, Countries of the former Yugoslavia
Switzerland until 2003
Used on road signs in several European countries
Standard (also known as Akzidenz-Grotesk)New York City subway signsSometimes seen on older New York City subway signs. Was sometimes used in place of Helvetica.[17]
    StiluUsed for road signs in Andorra.
    Sweden SansSwedish GovernmentCommissioned by the Swedish government, and designed by Stefan Hattenbach with the partnership of Stockholm-based design agency Söderhavet, designed to represent "Swedishness" both abroad and at home, and aims to become default in official sites in Sweden.[18]
    TERN (Trans-European Road Network) Austria, Slovakia Developed by the International Institute for Information Design with the aim of unifying the road signage in all of the European Union.
    Toronto Subway FontToronto Transit CommissionUsed in maps, publications, and most stations of the Toronto Subway
    Trafikkalfabetet ("The traffic alphabet")NorwayUsed for Norwegian road signs and (until 2002) motor vehicle registration plates
    TransportBritish roads

    Road signs in Hong Kong

    Also used in Portugal, Greece and other countries
    TratexRoad signs in Sweden
    TS Info and TS MapaTransantiagoCreated by the DET (Departamento de Estudios Tipográficos, Universidad Católica de Chile) for the Transantiago, the public transport network in Santiago de Chile.
    UniversMontreal Metro
    Hong Kong International Airport
    Bay Area Rapid Transit
    Also used for the Walt Disney World Resort road system (route numbers are in Highway Gothic)
    Vejtavleskrift ("Road sign typeface")Road signs in Denmark[19]
    VerdanaUsed for road signs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, and Slovenia
    VialogRenfe, directional signs on Japanese expresswaysUsed in signage and all corporative communications of the state-owned Spanish Railway Operator in a custom-made variant called Renfe Vialog.
    Wayfinding SansMetro Rio
    El Dorado International Airport
    Santa Cruz
    Used in signage for Rio de Janeiro's metro system Metro Rio, El Dorado International Airport, and the city of Santa Cruz, California.

    See also

    References

    1. Traffic Sign Typefaces: Italy http://opentype.info/blog/2009/02/09/traffic-sign-typefaces-italy/
    2. "Traffic Type Spain D - Desktop font « MyFonts". Myfonts.com. 1999-02-22. Retrieved 2012-11-09.
    3. 1 2 3 4 Joshua Yaffa (August 12, 2007). "The Road to Clarity". The New York Times.
    4. "Schrift in der Wegeleitung" [Fontface in route guidance]. Deutsche Bahn AG Marketingportal (in German). Retrieved 2018-02-19.
    5. "4.5 Signage Typeface." FIP Manual. Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, n.d. Web. 17 August 2011. <http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/fip-pcim/man_4_5-eng.asp>.
    6. 1 2 "FF Transit fonts from the FontFont Library". www.fontfont.com. Retrieved 2018-02-19.
    7. "Handbuch VBB-Richtlinien Fahrgastinformation" [VBB guideline for passenger information] (PDF) (in German). Verkehrsverbund Berlin Brandenburg. November 2017. Retrieved 2018-02-19.
    8. "The STM rolls out new signage in métro stations". Société de transport de Montréal. Retrieved 2018-02-19.
    9. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-07-28. Retrieved 2010-10-18.
    10. "Branding Guidelines" (PDF). Amtrak. 2009-04-23. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-02-26. Retrieved 2012-03-07.
    11. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-07-26. Retrieved 2009-10-09. (in Italian)
    12. According to National Technical Regulation on Expressway Guidance Signs (http://mt.gov.vn/Images/FileVanBan/_TT27-BGTVT.signed.pdf). Retrieved 2018-09-09.
    13. East Nippon Expressway Co., Ltd. (NEXCO East Japan), Central Nippon Expressway Co., Ltd. (NEXCO Central Japan), and West Nippon Expressway Co., Ltd. (NEXCO West Japan)「より視認し易い高速道路案内標識を目指した 標識レイアウトの変更について」
    14. http://mic-ro.com/metro/files/LTAFont.pdf
    15. Two Twelve Harakawa Inc.; Maestri Design Inc.; Jon Bentz Design (September 2004). "System-Wide Signage Design Manual, Second Edition" (PDF). Sound Transit. p. DS-17. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 13, 2010. Retrieved October 18, 2014. |chapter= ignored (help)
    16. "Manual de Señalización de Tránsito - Conaset". CONASET, Ministerioa de Transporter Telecomunicaciones. Feb 2015.
    17. (2008-11-18). "The (Mostly) True Story of Helvetica and the New York City Subway". AIGA. Retrieved 2012-11-09.
    18. http://soderhavet.com/nyheter/sverige-har-fatt-ett-eget-typsnitt/ (in Italian)
    19. http://www.trafikken.dk/wimpdoc.asp?page=document&objno=123041 (in Danish) Q&A by the Danish road authority Archived November 15, 2008, at the Wayback Machine.
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