What is the font of Los angeles freeway signs?

[bob2131]

hi, the font of california road signs, in particular of los angeles.

Anybody know what font this is?

Or are there diff ones?

thanks.

[iMacZealot]

The US. Federal Highway System designed a universal font (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FHWA_Series_fonts) for all highway signage in the 1940's. Tobias-Frere Jones designed an updated variation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_(typeface)) for commercial use.

I agree that it's a pretty font, too.

[Blue Velvet]

The lower case 's' doesn't quite match but the truncated descender on the 'g' makes me think of the info on this page. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FHWA_Series_fonts) At the bottom, you'll find some links.


1949-50, as part of a research program into freeway signing carried out by the California Department of Transportation, 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.[

There's also a Larabie font called Blue Highway (http://www.dafont.com/blue-highway.font) which might do the trick.

Edit: Tip to iMacZealot for getting there first. ;)

[bob2131]

i love this board i love this board i love this board

thankyou soooooo much for a speedy reply..

so FHWA is the "official" correct typeface.
Tobias Interstate is an off-shoot of the the above, with a bit of variation.
And blue highway....is a free.... very similar typeface?

So any of these would do?