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What font is this?

Started by bacon, June 27, 2021, 05:26:29 PM

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bacon

I'm trying to re-create this, but I'm not sure what font they use to make these type of guidesigns.
https://ibb.co/QjdqVwp


Rothman

Quote from: bacon on June 27, 2021, 05:26:29 PM
I'm trying to re-create this, but I'm not sure what font they use to make these type of guidesigns.
https://ibb.co/QjdqVwp
Clearview.
Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position(s) of NYSDOT.

Big John

Old Georgia sign - FHWA Series D.

ran4sh

Some have said that Georgia's old font is closer to Series C. It wouldn't exactly match the official FHWA font anyway, because Georgia's font was designed in the 80s or 90s (possibly by a third party), and FHWA fonts had only uppercase letters until 2000 (except for series E-modified which had always had lowercase letters).
Control cities CAN be off the route! Control cities make NO sense if signs end before the city is reached!

Travel Mapping - Most Traveled: I-40, 20, 10, 5, 95 - Longest Clinched: I-20, 85, 24, 16, NJ Tpk mainline
Champions - UGA FB '21 '22 - Atlanta Braves '95 '21 - Atlanta MLS '18

Rothman

#4
Dangit.  No serifs...
Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position(s) of NYSDOT.

machias

Quote from: bacon on June 27, 2021, 05:26:29 PM
I'm trying to re-create this, but I'm not sure what font they use to make these type of guidesigns.
https://ibb.co/QjdqVwp

It's Georgia's mixed-case take on Series D. It's not C, it's not Clearview, it's the old version of Series D.


Dirt Roads

Quote from: bacon on June 27, 2021, 05:26:29 PM
I'm trying to re-create this, but I'm not sure what font they use to make these type of guidesigns.
https://ibb.co/QjdqVwp
Quote from: Rothman on June 27, 2021, 05:46:18 PM
Clearview.

Made that same mistake when GDOT first switched over.  A lot of people do. 

ran4sh

The GDOT font predates Clearview by more than a decade, so I'm really not sure why so many people thought that it was Clearview when they first saw it.
Control cities CAN be off the route! Control cities make NO sense if signs end before the city is reached!

Travel Mapping - Most Traveled: I-40, 20, 10, 5, 95 - Longest Clinched: I-20, 85, 24, 16, NJ Tpk mainline
Champions - UGA FB '21 '22 - Atlanta Braves '95 '21 - Atlanta MLS '18

Rothman

Quote from: ran4sh on July 01, 2021, 12:35:47 AM
The GDOT font predates Clearview by more than a decade, so I'm really not sure why so many people thought that it was Clearview when they first saw it.
The less-font-obsessed just saw a thinner font, which usually indicates Clearview.
Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position(s) of NYSDOT.

Scott5114

Quote from: Rothman on July 02, 2021, 07:21:42 PM
Quote from: ran4sh on July 01, 2021, 12:35:47 AM
The GDOT font predates Clearview by more than a decade, so I'm really not sure why so many people thought that it was Clearview when they first saw it.
The less-font-obsessed just saw a thinner font, which usually indicates Clearview.

uncontrollable freak sardine salad chef

J N Winkler

Quote from: Rothman on July 02, 2021, 07:21:42 PMThe less-font-obsessed just saw a thinner font, which usually indicates Clearview.

I think it's more a case of the deductive chain going like this:  "This thing is not Highway Gothic.  Clearview is the alternative to Highway Gothic that I hear about.  Ergo, this must be Clearview."

It is a lot easier now to tell that the skinny font used in Georgia is not Clearview than it was fifteen years ago.  StreetView didn't exist at the time.  And although Georgia DOT was one of the pioneers in putting highway construction plan archives online, their signing plans were only very rarely pattern-accurate, so it was hard to tell just from plans that a different typeface was in use, let alone what it was.
"It is necessary to spend a hundred lire now to save a thousand lire later."--Piero Puricelli, explaining the need for a first-class road system to Benito Mussolini

tolbs17

That font is horrible looking though...

Rothman

Quote from: J N Winkler on July 27, 2021, 02:10:28 PM
Quote from: Rothman on July 02, 2021, 07:21:42 PMThe less-font-obsessed just saw a thinner font, which usually indicates Clearview.

I think it's more a case of the deductive chain going like this:  "This thing is not Highway Gothic.  Clearview is the alternative to Highway Gothic that I hear about.  Ergo, this must be Clearview."

It is a lot easier now to tell that the skinny font used in Georgia is not Clearview than it was fifteen years ago.  StreetView didn't exist at the time.  And although Georgia DOT was one of the pioneers in putting highway construction plan archives online, their signing plans were only very rarely pattern-accurate, so it was hard to tell just from plans that a different typeface was in use, let alone what it was.
Well, no.  I saw a thinner font and thought it was Clearview.

Pretty strange and presumptuous of you to think otherwise...
Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position(s) of NYSDOT.

J N Winkler

Quote from: Rothman on July 27, 2021, 07:08:35 PMWell, no.  I saw a thinner font and thought it was Clearview.

Pretty strange and presumptuous of you to think otherwise...

I wasn't talking about you specifically, but rather the people fifteen or more years ago who thought the thinner mixed-case typeface Georgia was using on signs had to be Clearview.  As Ran4sh notes in the post you were replying to, this goes back quite a while--I remember MTR discussions on this topic in the early noughties, when sign images in general (whether photos or pattern-accurate sign panel detail sheets) were a lot less plentiful than they are now.

This is a rare example of a pattern-accurate GDOT sign sketch from the mid-noughties (the TIFF file from which this is extracted has a May 2007 timestamp):



This sign sketch comes from the signing plans (sealed May 30, 2003) for TxDOT CCSJ 0167-01-083, a US 54 project in the El Paso district that was the first TxDOT advertised with pattern-accurate Clearview sign details (projects going back to late summer 2002 had had Series E Modified with the note "Use Expressway Clearview"):



Finding these took a lot more digging back in the old days--for example, I first heard about the GDOT plan archive in 2007 from someone else who had visited their offices in person asking about signing plans.
"It is necessary to spend a hundred lire now to save a thousand lire later."--Piero Puricelli, explaining the need for a first-class road system to Benito Mussolini



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