9/20/2019 New Rail Alphabet Font Free
This is Atrian. Developed as a more streamlined version of my previous custom-made typeface, Arctik, it's available in 2 weights, and is completely free to use! More than 2 years in the making, Atrian takes inspiration the applied fuzziness in physical space of neo-grotesque fonts like Helvetica or Rail Alphabet, applied to more modern and humanist curvature, inspiration coming from fonts like Roboto, and Frutiger.
The font appears human, and hand-crafted, with tiny irregularities in the thickness and curves adding to its character. Atrian includes a full upper and lowercase alphabet, with numbers, punctuation, and some extras. It's available in 2 weights, all included in the zip package, alongside the promotional artwork and some advice and information on licensing.
You can’t brand a decade any more than you can brand a nation. But for many, Margaret Calvert’s lettering left a big stamp on Britain in the 1960s. The public projects carried out by Jock Kinneir and Calvert, from the late 1950s, when they designed signs for Gatwick airport, through to 1965, when they completed the signing system for British Railways, bear the hand of South African-born Calvert, who drew the letterforms.
Kinneir Calvert signed the motorways and roads with their Transport alphabet (see Eye no. Rail Alphabet was drawn to be read in a slower, pedestrian context: signs for NHS hospitals and airports and rail stations.
The original Rail Alphabet was produced purely for signing, and later adopted by DSB, the Danish railway corporation, where it was used until 1997. In Britain, Kinneir Calvert’s sign system began to disappear in the 1990s, as British Rail was privatised and split into smaller companies, each with its own logo and type. Station signs, the responsibility of Railtrack (the group in charge of the infrastructure), were eventually replaced by The Foundry’s custom typeface Brunel. Type sample from the new company A2 Type, 2009, demonstrating the six weights of New Rail Alphabet (originally named Britanica), designed with corresponding italics, non-aligning numbers and a full set of Eastern European characters. Top: A2’s Henrik Kubel and Margaret Calvert work on New Rail Alphabet at the table in Calvert’s home in north London. Photograph: Anthony Oliver, February 2009.
In 2005, A2’s Henrik Kubel and Scott Williams approached Calvert with the idea of digitising Rail Alphabet for a touring British art project. Calvert, who had taught the Danish-born Kubel at the Royal College of Art in the 1990s, agreed.
Kubel traced the original letterforms and produced a complete typeface in one weight. He and Williams never got to use it for that project, but subsequently employed it in their catalogue Jane and Louise Wilson for the QUAD exhibition in 2008. Then, early in 2008, Calvert received a call from a Spanish company that wanted to produce a version of Rail Alphabet for a corporate client.
She replied that the typeface was already in the process of digitisation, and promptly renewed contact with Kubel. ‘I asked Henrik if he was interested and of course he was.’ Turning a signing alphabet into a commercial typeface for text was a gargantuan task.
Kubel resumed work, drawing and reshaping the new typeface, plus italics, in six weights: off white, white, light, medium, bold and black. The project had a personal dimension, too. Kubel had been familiar with Calvert’s letters since childhood, because his father worked for the DSB.
Kinneir Calvert’s original sketches and materials had been consigned to a skip when the company closed, so all Kubel had to work from were printed copies of the British Airports specifications for sign-makers. Each poster showed one of two sets of lettering: light on dark (for warning signs such as ‘Do not cross’), and dark on light. Kubel scanned the originals, traced the characters and started from there. Internally illuminated black-on-yellow direction sign at Heathrow airport showing application of British Rail signing system, early 1970s. This was also installed in Sydney and Melbourne. ‘You do different things when you do text faces and signing faces,’ says Kubel.
He points to small changes he has made in the original alphabet’s capitals (to stop them ‘spotting out’ in text), and x-height. ‘In the 1970s, having a high x-height was actually a fashionable thing, and we don’t want any fashion associated with this!’ says Calvert. ‘It’s a balance, because you can quite easily end up with a different face,’ says Kubel. Calvert speaks warmly of her former student’s prodigious industry: ‘He works round the clock, almost. There was a lot of to-ing and fro-ing.’ It was only when Kubel started to draw the lighter weights that Calvert became concerned. ‘You have to keep Henrik reined in,’ she says, with a smile. ‘I said: “Henrik, the minute you veer off that quite flat British Rail look, it’s another typeface.” ’ A solution came from Calvert’s own body of work: her slab serif typeface Calvert, released by Monotype in three weights in 1980.
Kubel observes that this is ‘essentially Brit Rail with slabs on – they come from the same origin, really’, referring to Calvert’s letters for the Tyne & Wear Metro signs, on which her typeface is based. ‘Now it is literally Calvert without serifs!’ she says. This is the first time that Kubel has collaborated with another type designer. But New Rail Alphabet changed from Britanica, a name that acknowledged the typeface’s origins in both Helvetica and British Rail after Eye 71 went to press is not a ‘revival’, he explains: ‘We set out to make a well crafted typeface that follows the original as much as we can the result is 93 per cent Margaret’s face and seven per cent mine.’ One of Margaret Calvert’s drawings for the italic version of New Rail Alphabet, initialled by Calvert and Kubel. Pushed to explain what makes it different from Helvetica, Kubel says: ‘I would say this is a very female version of a sans, it’s warmer than Helvetica, it oozes Margaret in every detail.
But my typefaces are very feminine, so I think we complement each other very well. If you know that Margaret did Transport as well, you see that it’s a natural way for her to draw another sans, a more “Swiss” sans.’ Like Calvert, Kubel draws by hand: ‘I think we share many things, though there are decades between us. Drawing is essential.’ Asked how her letters differ from rival systems, Calvert recalls the time she would drive all over Europe to see everyone else’s signs: ‘I was obsessive about looking at road signs it sits with you for the rest of your life. We always thought the Swiss and Germans were better – there was an inferiority complex in this country. ‘This sounds a bit vain, but it’s not meant to be. When we’d done our road signs I thought – they’re not aggressive, there’s something rounded about the characters, and the colours and the coolness and the straightforwardness of them. And it’s possibly that that’s how I draw.’ John L.
Walters, Eye editor, London First published in Eye no. 18, 2009 Eye is the world’s most beautiful and collectable graphic design journal, published quarterly for professional designers, students and anyone interested in critical, informed writing about graphic design and visual culture.
It is available from all good design bookshops and online at the, where you can buy subscriptions, back issues and single copies of the latest issue. You can also browse visual samples of recent issues.
License NOTIFICATION OF LICENSE AGREEMENTYou have obtained this font software either directly from Linotype GmbH or together with software distributed by one of Linotype's licensees.This font software is a valuable asset of Linotype GmbH. Unless you have entered into a specific license agreement granting you additional rights, your use of this font software is limited to your workstation for your own use. You may not copy or distribute this font software. If you have any questions regarding your license terms, please review the license agreement you received with the software.General license terms and usage rights can be viewed at www.linotype.com/license.Generelle Lizenzbedingungen und Nutzungsrechte finden Sie unter www.linotype.com/license.Pour plus d'informations concernant le contrat d'utilisation du logiciel de polices, veuillez consulter notre site web www.linotype.com/license.Linotype GmbH can be contacted at:Tel.: +49(0)6172 484-418.
Description OVERVIEW:This is the 3rd release of Novecento sans, a Caps + small-caps font family inspired on european typographic tendencies between the second half of 19th century and first half of the 20th.It looks rational and geometric. License Thank you for choosing Aerotype digital type products.
Aerotype Software License AgreementThe right to use this product is sold only on the condition that you, the Customer, agree to the following license. If you do not agree to the terms of the license, do Not open the disk package. Promptly return the unopened disk package and any other materials that are part of this Aerotype product together with a copy of your proof of payment, within 10 days for a full refund. By opening the accompanying sealed diskette package, you accept terms and conditions of this licensing agreement. Grant of License In consideration of payment of the license fee, which is part of the price you paid for this Software Product, Aerotype grants you the right to use one (1) copy of the enclosed Software Product (the 'Software') on a single computer. If the Software is used on a network, one licensed copy of the Software may be used on up to five (5) network stations and one (1) printer.
Aerotype reserves all rights not expressly granted by this license.2. Ownership and Obligations The Software is property of Aerotype. When you purchased this product, you purchased the magnetic or other physical media on which the Software was originally or subsequently fixed or recorded, but Aerotype retains all title and ownership in the Software recorded on the original disk copy and all subsequent copies of the Software regardless of the form or media in or on which the original and other copies may exist. The license is not a sale of the original Software or any portion or copy of it. Except as stated above, this agreement does not grant you any rights to the intellectual property rights in the Software.3. Other Restrictions The Software and accompanying materials are copyrighted, and are protected by United States copyright laws, and international agreements. You may not duplicate the software except for installation on one computer, and for archival (back-up) purposes, provided the archival copy bears the copyright notices contained on the original product.
Unauthorized copying of the Software, even if modified, merged, or included with other software, or of the written materials is expressly forbidden.4. Assignment You may assign your rights under this agreement to a third party who agrees to be bound by this agreement prior to the assignment, provided that you transfer all copies of the Software and related documents to the third party or destroy all copies not transferred.
You may not assign your rights under this agreement or rent, loan, lease, distribute, or otherwise transfer the Software, except as set forth above. Warriors orochi 3 ultimate ppsspp iso. You agree that the Software will not be shipped, transferred, or exported into any country or used in any manner inconsistent with the laws of the United States.5. Limited Warranty Aerotype warrants this product to be free of defects in material and workmanship when used in accordance with the documentation for a period of thirty (30) days from the date of purchase as evidenced by a copy of your receipt. If the Software fails to comply with this limited warrantee, Aerotype's entire liability is limited to replacement of the defective diskette(s).
Materi biokimia dasar Karbohidrat adalah biomolekul yang paling banyak terdapat di alam. Materi kedokteran dasar pdf. Ilmu dan Teknologi Pangan diharapkan memiliki kemampuan untuk memahami prinsip dasar biokimia di bidang pangan.
Aerotype shall have no liability for any failure of any diskette resulting from accident, abuse, or misapplication of the product. This remedy is not available outside the United States. Except for the above Limited Warranty, Aerotype makes no warranties, expressed or implied, as to merchantability, or fitness for a particular purpose.6. Limit of Liability In no event will Aerotype be liable for any consequential or incidental damages resulting from the use of the Software, including without limitation, damages for lost profits or lost savings, business interruption, loss of business information, or for any claim by any party, even if an Aerotype representative has been advised of the possibility of such damages. Some states do not allow the exclusion or limitation of incidental or consequential damages, so the above limitation or exclusion may not apply to you.This agreement will be governed by the laws of the State of California excluding the application of its conflicts of law rules. License NOTIFICATION OF LICENSE AGREEMENTYou have obtained this font software either directly from Linotype GmbH or together with software distributed by one of Linotype's licensees.This font software is a valuable asset of Linotype GmbH.
Unless you have entered into a specific license agreement granting you additional rights, your use of this font software is limited to your workstation for your own use. You may not copy or distribute this font software. If you have any questions regarding your license terms, please review the license agreement you received with the software.General license terms and usage rights can be viewed at www.linotype.com/license.Generelle Lizenzbedingungen und Nutzungsrechte finden Sie unter www.linotype.com/license.Pour plus d'informations concernant le contrat d'utilisation du logiciel de polices, veuillez consulter notre site web www.linotype.com/license.Linotype GmbH can be contacted at:Tel.: +49(0)6172 484-418.
Carl zeiss jena deltrintem 8x30. When British Rail unveiled its comprehensive corporate identity in 1964, one of the key elements which made it work was a new typeface. It was called Rail Alphabet and it has subsequently proved to be the most successful and long-lasting element of the corporate identity. Rail Alphabet. Picture by Pneumaman (UniversSpec.png) or , was one of the most comprehensive ever adopted by any British transport company, and indeed probably any transport company (you can read two earlier entries about it and ). It was designed to wipe out the existing hotchpotch of styles and motifs which had graphically illustrated the confused nature of the business from its creation in 1948 until that point.
British Railways (as it was publicly known until 1966) even had multiple typefaces in use on its signage and its trains. Most frequently seen was Gill Sans, a chilly all-upper case typeface dating from before the second world war and inherited from the London and North Eastern Railway. This bossy and sometimes difficult typeface seemed increasingly out of place in the more informal 1960s, as longstanding social norms were challenged or abandoned. Meanwhile, a condensed (narrow) rectangular font served for train numbers on many locomotives. And I’m afraid I can’t think of any word other than ‘ugly’ for that one.
Rail Alphabet was the answer to these challenges. It was a mixed upper and lower case typeface, instantly looking more friendly than Gill Sans. It was well proportioned, with nicely rounded ‘0’s, ‘o’s and ‘O’s for instance – unlike the rectangular locomotive lettering. It would go on to be applied everywhere across the British Rail network, including the company’s road vehicles, hovercraft and ships.
Because this blog doesn’t feature hovercraft very often, here is Rail Alphabet on a cross-channel hovercraft: British Rail operated cross-channel hovercraft like this one under the Seaspeed brand between 1966 and 1981. Photo by 70023venus2009 via It wasn’t actually British Rail’s first go at a new typeface for the rail blue corporate identity. The company had been much impressed by launched in the 1960s. British Railways tried out signage using Transport at Coventry station (as detailed ), but it wasn’t entirely satisfactory.
As Calvert would later explain, the problem was that Transport was designed to be quickly assimilated by drivers as road signs were approached at speed. In a station environment, where there was more time to read signage, speed of interpretation was no longer the key concern. Calvert and Kinneir were asked to design a typeface specifically for the railway, and so it was that this pair of designers ended up defining the ‘feel’ not just of Britain’s roads, but its railways (and later, its airports too). If anyone can lay any claim to having branded Britain in the post-war period, it is surely Calvert and Kinneir. No-one else has come close to designing so much of what creates the everyday experience of the appearance of Britain’s public realm. The result of Calvert and Kinneir’s assessment of the needs of a typeface at railway stations as opposed to one being designed for roads is that Rail Alphabet’s letters are slightly heavier and more closely spaced than those of Transport, with less exaggerated tails on the letters.
It is similar to Helvetica, but distinctively different, though it’s hard to say exactly why. It’s certainly more tightly spaced, and I think the width of the letter strokes is a little more consistent throughout. One of the best places to see Rail Alphabet was on the large “Solari” departure boards at stations. This is Charing Cross in 2002. The Rail Alphabet departure board dates from British Rail days, while later signage (with blue backgrounds) is in Railtrack’s Brunel typeface. Photo by James Gibbon at en.wikipedia (Own work) or , Deliberately, Rail Alphabet is neither showy nor shouty.
Calvert described it as “low-key”, intended to stand out from the commercial signage at stations which was more flamboyant. “It’s ordinary,” she said. “People think nobody designed it, because it’s ordinary.”¹ Rail Alphabet is all about the message, not the medium.
It is designed with simplicity in mind, to give information without the character of the lettering distracting from or overwhelming the message being conveyed. The mix of upper and lower case text was definitely easier to take in than the bossy all-upper case Gill Sans it replaced. As such it was the perfect typeface for British Rail, which was at the time trying to project a new image of low-key, straightforward competence, at some remove from its previous reputation for scandalous financial mismanagement and a confused strategic vision. The full version of, along with the tiling system that allowed the letters to be correctly spaced in relation to each other – a key concern given that signs were quite likely to be put together by hand; these were the days before everyone had access to desktop computers with installed fonts. Used alongside Rail Alphabet was a set of standard pictograms which for decades defined the look of British Rail’s stations (you can see the full set, in BR’s Corporate Identity Manual).
While the road sign pictograms that accompanied Transport on Britain’s road signs were designed by Calvert, I’ve yet to absolutely confirm whether those that accompanied Rail Alphabet were too, or whether they were the work of Design Research Unit, which created BR’s double arrow logo. Signage at stations was almost exclusively in black text on white backgrounds. It was a significant change from the Gill Sans signage it ousted, which had featured white text on darker coloured backgrounds. There’s no convincing evidence that one is better than the other, and for every study I’ve read finding that dark text on light backgrounds is more legible than light on dark, I’ve read another that has found the exact opposite.
Only a cynic would note that it keeps sign manufacturers busy if transport operators are kept in a state of confusion as to which is better, and regularly swap between one and the other. Rail Alphabet signage at Preston station.
This is a typical BR scene, Rail Alphabet in black on a white background, distinctive directional arrows and pictograms, and everything (sign and building) a bit grimy. Photo by Jordan Hatch via Rail Alphabet wasn’t just for station signage. All the lettering and numbers on trains (bar some very minor exceptions) was in Rail Alphabet, as was signage inside trains. So were trackside notices, BR’s letterheads, timetables, posters, and practically anything else that had letters or numbers on it, including (with apposite circularity) the Corporate Identity Manual.
It might not have been the most stylish typeface ever created, but Rail Alphabet was perfect for its job, and its lack of overt showiness has given it a timeless quality. A more obviously fashionable typeface would have dated much more quickly.
Data panel on a British Rail locomotive. Photo by Rob Reedman via It didn’t take long before others noticed that Rail Alphabet was one of the best wayfinding typefaces out there. British Airports Authority adopted it for its airports (see a picture ), and the Danish state railway operator DSB imported it too (see a picture ). Years later, this debt would be acknowledged in the preface to a book about British Rail’s design work, which was published by the Danish Design Council and featured a foreword by Jens Nielsen, Director of Design, Danish State Railways (Cousins, 1986: p2). However, the place most British people would have seen Rail Alphabet outside British Rail was at the country’s public hospitals, where it was used on directional signage.
It’s no great surprise: both British Rail and the National Health Service were large public sector organisations, both operated large public buildings with complicated layouts, and both needed a typeface which would work well on signage directing the public around their premises. It did mean, however, that if you were in a hospital and presented with directional signage, there was a subconscious feeling that you might be about to miss a train. Vice versa, presented with directional signage at a railway station, you could sometimes get the queasy feeling that you were about to undergo an unpleasant medical procedure.
It seems to have spread as far as hospitals in Denmark, because I’m pretty sure that the sign in is in Rail Alphabet too (though it might be Helvetica in a bold weight). At this point, an element of confusion creeps in. I’ve several times seen it stated that Rail Alphabet was developed by Calvert and Kinnear from the typeface used for the NHS (for instance in Jackson, 2013: p100 or Garfield, 2010: p158). However, other sources put the direction of movement the other way round, and Calvert gave the distinct impression that Rail Alphabet was created for British Rail, when interviewed for the.
Given that British Rail had a keen interest in developing a new and cohesive corporate identity, the balance of probabilities also strongly favours it, rather than the NHS, being the typeface’s first customer. I’m willing to be proved wrong, however. British Rail essentially gifted Rail Alphabet to others, enhancing the typeface’s reputation. It makes for an interesting contrast with the practice of London Transport (now Transport for London), which has jealously guarded its specially created Johnston/New Johnston typefaces since their creation, ensuring that they have never spread beyond London (or carefully licensed books and souvenirs).
It’s actually London Transport’s model that is the most emulated today, with post-privatisation railway infrastructure operator Network Rail restricting use of its bespoke Brunel typeface (inherited from its predecessor Railtrack and developed for signage at the major stations it manages) to the British railway industry. British Rail’s rail blue corporate identity eventually vanished as the business began to segment into different business sectors in the 1980s, but Rail Alphabet mostly just kept on going, despite challenges posed by the new sectors’ branding. InterCity rebranded in 1987, at which pointed it dispensed with Rail Alphabet for its logo. Its replacement was a spindly, all-upper case italicised typeface, which lacked the authority of Rail Alphabet and now looks a lot more dated. However, Rail Alphabet continued to be used for the carriage and locomotive numbers of InterCity trains and for signage at its stations.
Though both Regional Railways and Network SouthEast also experimented with new typefaces, they too retained Rail Alphabet for station signage and technical lettering on trains. The only cohesive pre-privatisation move away from Rail Alphabet was made by the Parcels sector, which rebranded itself as Rail Express Systems in 1991 and used what I think is Frutiger for its train numbers and other signage.
Charing Cross station in 1991. Network SouthEast has applied its own branding to the platform sign in the background, but the text remains in Rail Alphabet.
The train numbers are also in Rail Alphabet. Network SouthEast’s only non-Rail Alphabet signage at station or on trains was on the route badges applied to trains (a “Kent Link” badge is applied to the train on the left). Photo by Daniel Wright via Outside the railway, the other users of Rail Alphabet eventually adopted different typefaces. BAA dropped Rail Alphabet at its airports in favour of something called BAA (Bembo) which has many fans, but which to me looks irredeemably 1980s and has itself now been replaced by Frutiger.
The NHS in England adopted Frutiger in the 1990s and in Scotland chose Stone Sans, but you’ll still find many Rail Alphabet signs at NHS premises in both countries, like this one, at my local dentists’ surgery: Rail Alphabet signage still in place at a dentists’ surgery, May 2015. Photo by Daniel Wright CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 The privatisation of the rail network saw a bewildering array of new typefaces introduced to the national railway network.
While Network Rail’s ongoing ownership of its major stations means that Brunel has been around for a while now, other typefaces have come and gone at stations and on trains as train operating franchises have changed hands. I’ve lost count of the number of typefaces that have been seen on the East Coast Main Line intercity services as various operators have tried to make a go of that unlucky franchise. It was suggested in 2009’s Better Rail Stations report by Chris Green (inventor of Network SouthEast and all-round modern railway management genius) and Professor Sir Peter Hall for the Department for Transport that Brunel should be adopted as a standard typeface for signage at British railway stations. It would therefore do the job Rail Alphabet had once done; a suggestion to which the DfT cheerfully paid no heed whatsoever. I think only South West Trains has adopted Brunel on its station signage (like Network Rail’s in white text on a dark blue background). The genie is well and truly out of the bottle and the chances of getting Britain’s railway operators to agree on a single typeface for use at stations now seem pretty slim.
That said, Rail Alphabet continues to play a key role on the national rail network. It is the typeface mandated for lineside operational safety notices, as you can see in (GI/RT7033, set in Rail Alphabet itself, of course). As a result, you’ll see it telling you to stop, look and listen at crossing points on the railway which don’t have automatic barriers. Rail Alphabet on a railway trackside safety notice.
Photo by Keith Evans , You’ll also see it on the data panels on most British railway trains. Some operators have abandoned it for train numbers; South West Trains uses the spiky but coolly glamorous Futura which much better matches its logo than Rail Alphabet, though it is of course a different typeface to its station signage, and there’s a lack of consistent branding as a result. A surprising number of train operators still cleave to Rail Alphabet for their train numbers and sometimes station signage, however.
Greek Alphabet Font
Why, after all, meddle with something designed to work specifically on the railway system, unless you have very good reason to? Given the insipid brand identities of several train operating franchises on Britain’s railway network today, it’s quite possible that the Rail Alphabet train numbers are the best-designed things to be seen there. It’s a testament to the quality of Calvert and Kinneir’s work that years since the rest of British Rail’s rail blue corporate identity has vanished, Rail Alphabet soldiers on, doing what it does, as well as it does. If you’ve never noticed their work before – because they never really intended you to notice it – hopefully you’ll never look at a train number the same way again.
Bibliography and further reading Boocock, Colin (2000): Railway Liveries: BR Traction 1948-1995. Ian Allen: Shepperton Cousins, James (1986): British Rail Design. Danish Design Council: Copenhagen Garfield, Simon (2010): Just My Type. Profile Books: London Green, Chris and Hall, Professor Sir Peter (2009): Better Rail Stations. Her Majesty’s Stationery Office: London.
An online version is Jackson, Tanya (2013): British Rail: The Nation’s Railway. The History Press: Stroud, Gloucestershire ¹ BBC Four (2015): The Golden Age of British Rail. BBC, London doublearrow.co.uk: the British Rail corporate identity manual recreated as a website, How to find Rail Alphabet As detailed, the font was digitised a few years ago, and is available. Thanks for an interesting article. It’s lovely to see such admiration for Rail Alphabet, an underrated and under-recognised typeface that hasn’t really been bettered. South West Trains’ recent roll-out of Brunel not only looks bland and dowdy by comparison, but seems to be less readable at distances or in low lighting than Rail Alphabet was!
Alas, I think the “Stop, Look, Listen” sign pictured is in Helvetica – the diagonal of the digit 2 is curved instead of angled, and the top of the lower case f doesn’t have that distinctive flat/squashed look. That Swedish hospital signage really.does. look like Rail Alphabet though – I’m gobsmacked to see it got that far! As far as I can tell, Rail Alphabet is still going strong at Arriva Trains Wales in particular. They’ve used it for all their new or refurbished stations recently, along with on-board signage on recently-refurbished trains. (Frutiger and Helvetica do crop up occasionally, but I think that’s probably where they’ve used a different contractor to normal for a small one-off job.) Merseyrail and First Great Western also seem to be fans at the moment – but it remains to be seen if that’ll change with the pending rebrand of the latter. Thanks Alex, glad you enjoyed it.
You might be right about the “Stop Look Listen” board. I’m lost in admiration for people who can distinguish accurately the identity of fonts. I don’t find it nearly so easy, so thank you. That said, given that the relevant Railway Group Standard says that lineside notices have to be set in Rail Alphabet, if that particular sign is in Helvetica then it’s been done wrong! At some point I’ll do a survey of some of the post-privatisation typefaces used by train operators.
My particular least-favourite is the one used on the Network West Midlands stations around Birmingham. I’m sure it’s very clever, and I don’t doubt it has many fans, but to me it just looks like bubble writing.
I’m not an expert in fonts, but I’m pretty sure “Stop, Look, Listen” is in Helvetica Bold. The Helvetica “a” is very different in bold to the regular weight and looks very much like the Rail Alphabet “a”. The main difference is that in Helvetica the stroke thickness varies, and so far as I can see that’s the case here. And, as mentioned above, the “2” is curved and the “f”‘s don’t look flattened.
New Rail Alphabet Bold Font Free Download
I don’t know if I can post links here, but I found a web saying that while the standards say that signs should use Rail Alphabet, for a long time there was no computerised version available, so the only practical option was to ask for the signs to be produced in Helvetica Bold.
Comments are closed.
|
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |