When did they started doing enlarged letters

Started by Zxct56y, December 12, 2024, 10:34:14 PM

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Quillz

Quote from: Voyager on December 18, 2024, 02:12:56 PMI've noticed some ridiculously oversized shields in MA when I visited, there was a I-195 sign that was almost the size of an overhead with oversized fonts crashing against the borders.


Voyager

Quote from: Quillz on December 20, 2024, 05:10:29 PM
Quote from: Voyager on December 18, 2024, 02:12:56 PMI've noticed some ridiculously oversized shields in MA when I visited, there was a I-195 sign that was almost the size of an overhead with oversized fonts crashing against the borders.



Thanks I hate it
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jeffandnicole

Quote from: Quillz on December 20, 2024, 05:10:29 PM
Quote from: Voyager on December 18, 2024, 02:12:56 PMI've noticed some ridiculously oversized shields in MA when I visited, there was a I-195 sign that was almost the size of an overhead with oversized fonts crashing against the borders.



I have no issues with the 195 sign, but it should have an appropriately signed cardinal direction plaque.  Arguably that's more important as one is likely to be on the correct highway, but may not be going the correct direction.

The 95 sign is just stupid.

Bobby5280


CtrlAltDel

Quote from: Bobby5280 on December 12, 2024, 11:04:00 PMThe large capital and small capital treatment in cardinal direction lettering for highway signs has been going on in the US for more than a decade. IIRC, it dates back to the early 2000's. The funny thing is those lettering treatments are worthless work-arounds. It's all fake.

None of the highway fonts currently in use or in use in the past have any kind of properly correct small capitals character sets.

This is one of the things you've said a number of times that's made me roll my eyes, so I went and made a properly weighted E (the easiest letter) for comparison purposes:


And my observation is that there is a difference, and the unweighted version is not as good, although not to the level of disparagement you typically use to describe it. On the whole, though, aesthetically at least, I don't like either of them and would prefer all of the letters to be the same height.
I-290   I-294   I-55   (I-74)   (I-72)   I-40   I-30   US-59   US-190   TX-30   TX-6

Bobby5280

The practice is unprofessional. Simple as that. I'm far less forgiving of the bullshit practice when it comes to fake small capitals in commercial sign designs. That's because the commercial "sign designers" have far more options. But too many of them are lazy as hell.

rhen_var

Quote from: Quillz on December 20, 2024, 05:10:29 PM
Quote from: Voyager on December 18, 2024, 02:12:56 PMI've noticed some ridiculously oversized shields in MA when I visited, there was a I-195 sign that was almost the size of an overhead with oversized fonts crashing against the borders.


I kind of like that I-195 sign.

MATraveler128

I never did like the large I-95 shields. I remember them being along I-95 in Wakefield, MA. They really only work on the 3dis. I-95 is the only 2di in Massachusetts I've seen them on.
Formerly BlueOutback7

Lowest untraveled number: 96

Rothman

Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position(s) of NYSDOT.

Big John


Zxct56y

Quote from: CtrlAltDel on December 16, 2024, 01:59:14 AM
Quote from: Zxct56y on December 15, 2024, 02:39:42 PM
Quote from: US 89 on December 15, 2024, 12:56:25 PM
Quote from: Zxct56y on December 14, 2024, 09:23:53 PMDespite knowing why they do it
(They do it for 2 reasons the first one is
like a phrase you start with capital letters so having a larger 1st capital letter and smaller capital words would make sense. The 2nd one i think is in my opinion is to make the directions more visible). In Canada some provinces do enlarge the 1st letter of directions in different forms. Quebec is the only one who dosen't do it because of the French Language


Why would what language it's in make a difference? No reason you can't have a sign for "A-15 NORD".
Well the only direction in french that Kind of looks bad is OUEST (WEST in french) while NORD EST and SUD are fine OUEST is the only that dosen't look good with an enlarged 1st letter


One possible reason is that the words nord/sud and est/ouest are a bit more visually distinct from one another than north/south and east/west, at least in terms of width.


It would be better if the 1st letter would be a little bit larger tho

SEWIGuy

Quote from: Bobby5280 on December 22, 2024, 12:09:12 PMThe practice is unprofessional. Simple as that. I'm far less forgiving of the bullshit practice when it comes to fake small capitals in commercial sign designs. That's because the commercial "sign designers" have far more options. But too many of them are lazy as hell.

How is that "unprofessional?"

jeffandnicole

Quote from: Bobby5280 on December 22, 2024, 12:09:12 PMThe practice is unprofessional. Simple as that. I'm far less forgiving of the bullshit practice when it comes to fake small capitals in commercial sign designs. That's because the commercial "sign designers" have far more options. But too many of them are lazy as hell.

When the sign lettering is being used as directed, that's the perfect definition of "professional".

Should've fought it during the public comment period for the MUTCD if you think the 30+ year old standard is bad practice.

Bobby5280

Quote from: jeffandnicoleWhen the sign lettering is being used as directed, that's the perfect definition of "professional".

You are assuming that. The fact is the agencies are just making due with the primitive fonts they have and that's all. This is just another item to add to the list of other unprofessional looking things commonly done to highway sign designs.

Scaling capital letters to 75% of their normal height (or any other percentage value) is visually inferior to using a typeface that has a native small caps character set. The only way the fakery can look graceful at all is by using a variable font and manually adjusting the weight axis on small cap letters so their letter strokes look balanced with the large cap characters.

Henry

At least as far as Chicago is concerned, IDOT has been late to the party, because the old button-copy signs on the expressways hung on until the mid- late-2010s, when they were replaced with newer  signs that had the enlarged first letters. Even the 2000s-era Clearview signs that also got replaced did not have them!
Go Cubs Go! Go Cubs Go! Hey Chicago, what do you say? The Cubs are gonna win today!

baugh17

Quote from: jeffandnicole on December 18, 2024, 01:19:23 PMMy state, NJ, was a little late to the game on many of their signs, but it definitely was common before you took notice to it. In the 1990s most states had converted their signage practices to have a larger first letter.

New York was late to the game also.  I think they started showing up on some signs during the early 00s but widespread use didn't come along until the end of the decade.



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