Does anybody else actually have handwriting that resembles Highway Gothic? Mine sort of does, but mostly just for numbers. When I was 13 or 14, I consciously started basing my numbers on the highway font, since they were hard to read otherwise. Letters, no so much. I still have to print my letters very carefully, so if you see some of my handwriting, you can probably see I have to make it very blockish and angular to make it legible.
I consciously started modeling my handwriting around road sign lettering around jr high. I would say my uppercase matches Series D pretty well. In lowercase I deviate: I can't make a good 3-story "a," my "g" usually has a longer tail, and I'm inconsistent about curling the "t." Numbers I don't bother emulating unless I want my handwriting to look extra nice. FHWA numerals are too curvy to write quickly. It's probably one of the easiest fonts to emulate since the shapes are pretty basic.
I try with my numbers.
I thought I was the only who based my handwriting off of highway gothic! :-D
In addition, I can make a pretty good Interstate shield, US route shield, and many state route shields.
Quote from: jbnati27 on August 17, 2016, 10:36:50 AM
In addition, I can make a pretty good Interstate shield, US route shield, and many state route shields.
I can do those pretty good.
Once in the 1980s there was a clothing manufacturer that used almost the exact shape of a U.S. route shield for its tags. All I had to do was cut some edges off the tags, and the back of the tag would be a perfect shield shape.
My handwriting doesn't look like Highway Gothic, but I do enjoy drawing route shields on my school notes! :) Especially if I'm planning on going on a trip, or just came back from one, then I'll do shields related to the trip.
YES
My numbers are all modeled after highway gothic. I don't write words according to any regimen reminiscent of roadway signage. I make my lowercase a's the round way.
The easiest way to tell that my numerical handwriting is from road signs: look at my 9's. My 4's, 5's, and 6's are also indicators. Here's a scoreboard I made for the 1-2-3 road sign thread, just as a sample:
Quote from: paulthemapguy on June 14, 2016, 12:46:34 PM
(https://c4.staticflickr.com/8/7781/27670773035_866258a937_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/JaaWMH)
I was actually doing my lowercase l's with a Clearview-like tail when clarity was needed (such as hitchhiking signs and cases where I was writing a mix of letters and numbers), quite a while before I started seeing Clearview signs. I based it on the Trebuchet font.
Quote from: paulthemapguy on August 17, 2016, 12:33:35 PM
My numbers are all modeled after highway gothic.
The numbers on that paper are very similar to what I do.
Futura is probably even simpler than Highway Gothic. It is of course the 'Sesame Street' font, but 'Sesame Street' seemed to have a couple variations on the number 4. I noticed this growing up. I've always had trouble with reading comprehension, but I was always observant about fonts. I remember a lot of children's books back then that used Futura but the lowercase 'j' didn't have a tail. It seems like Futura was also used on old civil defense pamphlets and stuff.
My cursive is rather weird.
Quote from: kphoger on August 17, 2016, 01:57:21 PM
I was actually doing my lowercase l's with a Clearview-like tail when clarity was needed (such as hitchhiking signs and cases where I was writing a mix of letters and numbers), quite a while before I started seeing Clearview signs. I based it on the Trebuchet font.
Holy crap I do that too! That is the one thing I like about Clearview. So I adopted it. I do the tails sometimes at the bottom of lowercase t's as well.
Quote from: paulthemapguy on August 17, 2016, 12:33:35 PM
YES
My numbers are all modeled after highway gothic. I don't write words according to any regimen reminiscent of roadway signage. I make my lowercase a's the round way.
The easiest way to tell that my numerical handwriting is from road signs: look at my 9's. My 4's, 5's, and 6's are also indicators. Here's a scoreboard I made for the 1-2-3 road sign thread, just as a sample:
Quote from: paulthemapguy on June 14, 2016, 12:46:34 PM
(https://c4.staticflickr.com/8/7781/27670773035_866258a937_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/JaaWMH)
I guess my numbers closely resemble FHWA Series F. My handwriting is definitely a cross between the FHWA series letters and typical engineer type lettering.
You be the judge...
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8818/28784088640_583fd463ba.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/KRxYJm)handwriting (https://flic.kr/p/KRxYJm) by Ryan busman_49 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/busman_49/), on Flickr
Quote from: 7/8 on August 17, 2016, 12:25:24 PM
My handwriting doesn't look like Highway Gothic, but I do enjoy drawing route shields on my school notes! :) Especially if I'm planning on going on a trip, or just came back from one, then I'll do shields related to the trip.
Same! I always had a thing for drawing Interstate shields and "SPEED LIMIT 85" signs on my papers. Sometimes I would also draw exit only signs around the titles on worksheets.
Quote from: pumpkineater2 on August 18, 2016, 04:29:43 PM
Quote from: 7/8 on August 17, 2016, 12:25:24 PM
My handwriting doesn't look like Highway Gothic, but I do enjoy drawing route shields on my school notes! :) Especially if I'm planning on going on a trip, or just came back from one, then I'll do shields related to the trip.
Same! I always had a thing for drawing Interstate shields and "SPEED LIMIT 85" signs on my papers. Sometimes I would also draw exit only signs around the titles on worksheets.
Sometimes I scan my school notes for friends, if they couldn't make it to class for whatever reason. And I find it funny seeing my route shields in their notes. :D It's actually useful if a friend is asking me a question about something I wrote; they can use the route numbers sort of like page numbers :-D
I also like doing titles in various fonts; I should start doing road fonts!
My normal handwriting is not neat enough to look like anything other than scribbles to anyone but me.
I did teach myself how to write when I was little, but based on printed text in books, not highway signs. There were no highway signs lying around in my house to serve as readily available reference. :-D
This is my handwriting...
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FwRenPmH.jpg&hash=937b45ea216e078bf90d336c36bf49d126407e43)
The numbers were clearly highway-based, but the letters not as much.
I have to admit, I attempt to write in Highway Gothic sometimes, but not naturally. I have to try to do it. My 2's, 6's and 5's are pretty good though.
I remember teaching myself to write my 9 without a straight line.. i wanted it to be like the 9 on interstate 95 shields... I also practiced making my lower case a like higway Gothic.. problem is sometimes when writing quickly for taking notes it will look like a z
I could never understand the cursive capital 'G'. It doesn't look anything like any other 'G'. It looks almost like a person sitting on a toilet.
Quote from: bandit957 on August 18, 2016, 11:33:05 PM
I could never understand the cursive capital 'G'. It doesn't look anything like any other 'G'. It looks almost like a person sitting on a toilet.
:-D
How about the cursive capital Q? Just a big ol' floppy 2. I strongly dislike cursive. Dumped it in 6th grade after our teacher said he didn't care whether we wrote in print or cursive.
Quote from: jwolfer on August 18, 2016, 11:01:02 PM
I remember teaching myself to write my 9 without a straight line.. i wanted it to be like the 9 on interstate 95 shields... I also practiced making my lower case a like higway Gothic.. problem is sometimes when writing quickly for taking notes it will look like a z
Same here...I wanted my 9s to look like they did on signs and not the stick 9. When I was in 4th grade, I started making my 4s look like a 4 instead of basically an upside-down lowercase h. Except my 5th grade teacher made it VERY plain that she did NOT want "teepee 4s." So for that year only I had to modify my 4s to make her happy. All bets were off after that :sombrero:
Quote from: busman_49 on August 18, 2016, 02:06:36 PM
You be the judge...
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8818/28784088640_583fd463ba.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/KRxYJm)handwriting (https://flic.kr/p/KRxYJm) by Ryan busman_49 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/busman_49/), on Flickr
Yep! Your numbers are very closely aligned with Highway Gothic. Especially striking are your 2's, 4's, 6's and 9's. Heck, even your 8's look like roadway signage. My 8's don't because I'm too lazy to pick up the pencil to make 2 circles. (I more or less make an S then close it.) I like how the middle of your 2's curve to make a right angle with the bottom line. My 2's look more like the font on this website.
And yeah cursive can rot.
I also based my handwriting in Highway Gothic since a child, actually in the Autopista font variant. Although that, I usually write so quickly that it looks like a messy version of the FHWA series E. Though there are some differences (like the 4 in the shape of a h upside down), it looks quite similar.
Nope, not even remotely similar to Highway Gothic. I was forced by my mother to write entire words with a single line.
Quote from: busman_49 on August 18, 2016, 02:06:36 PM
You be the judge...
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8818/28784088640_583fd463ba.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/KRxYJm)handwriting (https://flic.kr/p/KRxYJm) by Ryan busman_49 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/busman_49/), on Flickr
Your numbers kind of remind me of Comic Sans, actually. ;-)
Quote from: bandit957 on August 18, 2016, 11:33:05 PM
I could never understand the cursive capital 'G'. It doesn't look anything like any other 'G'. It looks almost like a person sitting on a toilet.
Nice. :-D
Although I do also wonder how they got "G" out of that.
Quote from: bandit957 on August 18, 2016, 11:33:05 PM
I could never understand the cursive capital 'G'. It doesn't look anything like any other 'G'. It looks almost like a person sitting on a toilet.
When my Dad (Gary) signs his name, it looks like Mary! I always thought that was funny :)
My teacher only taught us capital letters in cursive, and then we stopped doing it for whatever reason. So now the only thing I can write in cursive is my name.
Probably the reason I don't like cursive is that I am essentially word-blind. It takes me a long time to read a book. I sort of work around it.
OK just did mine with a sharpie. That just seemed a little better than just a ball point pen:
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimgur.com%2Fk6LdVfu.jpg&hash=5f05c5fb7b704ada9cc9fa236a5ef2de3d4fa1c2)
Quote from: bandit957 on August 18, 2016, 11:33:05 PM
I could never understand the cursive capital 'G'. It doesn't look anything like any other 'G'. It looks almost like a person sitting on a toilet.
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2Fkmjx5hy.png&hash=fbaf33b249e58c88df342cc8da85a1008d61032e)
Basically, instead of having the big loop we associate with the letter G, it has a line coming up from the baseline that joins where that loop would be toward the bottom. Presumably, it's easier to write quickly since your pen usually starts near the baseline with cursive.
What made this click in my head was actually the signature of one George M. Humphrey, Secretary of the Treasury under Eisenhower:
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/G_M_Humphrey_sig.jpg)
His G is a kind of midway point between a print G and a cursive G.