TYPOGRAPHY AND THE ROAD SIGN
Main Points The Lincoln Highway Eisenhower Interstate System Highway Gothic Clearview
The lincoln Highway 1913
The Lincoln Highway is the oldest highway bulit in the United States. It was built in 1913 by the influence of Carl G. Fisher. The highway was also known as Route 66 and present day is known as I-80 and I-95.
700 Cities
Coast to coast from New York to California
Dwight D. Eisenhower Interstate Highway System Budget of $26 billion Completed after 35 years Final section through Colorado Canyon End up costing $114 billion 46,000 miles long
1956 "Together, the united forces of our communication and transportation systems are dynamic elements in the very name we bear - United States. Without them, we would be a mere alliance of many separate parts." -Dwight D. Eisenhower
Offical names were “FHWA Series-B� and so on. Styles vary between amount of space between letter and width Wider the font the easier to read from a distance
Highway Gothic
1966-1977 Gothic Spacing values into a limited number of codes Software puts the every character into bounding boxes and asigns a fixed value Each character will have some amount of white space all around letter
Updating Standard Gothic
The Spacing Tables shown on the right shows the actual width of each letter with the space to the left and to the right of each letter. All of the dimensions are based upon an upper case letter height 4” and the lower case letter height which is 2.9” from the baseline. Height of round letter height is 3”. The round letters extend alittle below the baseline and also above the x-height of both upper and lower case.
Highway Gothic E-modified The Series-E modified Highway Gothic version is the most commonly used in the series. The majority of signs on freeways and expressways today will most likely be in the Series-E Modified version. The reason it is called ‘modified’ is because the letter stroke, which refers to the width of lines, are modified to be 20% of the letter height of Series-E.
Clearview
2004 The font Clearview was granted approval from the Federal Highway Association to be used on positive contrast signs. The sans-seif font was literally created for the function of its name- a clearer view of the readability of road signs. Don Meeker and James Montalbano spent years developing this typeface for road signs that would be more legible in both day and night time. The team behind the fonts’ development also included perceptual psychologists, human factors scientists, and highway engineers. They desired to create a font that was simple but still had character. They reduced the irradiation effects of retro-reflective sign materials, created larger counter spaces within the letters, and used a higher x-height. E-MODIFIED PANEL IN UPPER LEFT. CLEARVIEWHWY 5-W AND 5-B IN THE MIDDLE AND LOWER LEFT POSITIONS RESPECTIVELY. CLEARVIEWHWY 3-W AND 3-B IN MIDDLE AND LOWER RIGHT POSITIONS RESPECTIVELY.
CLEARVIEW-BOLD (LEFT POSITION, ORIGINAL VERSION OF TYPEFACE) VS HIGHWAY GOTHIC SERIES E-MODIFIED (RIGHT)
Clearview lowercase is taller , so the interior shapes of the letters are more open to allow the clear definition of each letter. The letterspacing is designed to accommodate to older drivers. The weight of each is specified with two versions which are one for the use in postive contrast, and one for the use of negative contrast. The negative contrast version is optically adjusted to appear the same weight as the positive version which is slightly heavier stroke width.
Clearview Design
The team designing this typeface mixed typefaces that were similar to FHWA Standard Alphabets, Series D and Series E-modified. The letterforms were designed using proportional attributes to aid in viewing from a distance. Designers took special interest in lowercase letters “a,e, and s,” the design of the counters, the relationship of ascender to the lowercase “x”.
EXPERIMENT DEVELOPED TO TEST SUBJECTS SPEED OF RECOGNITION. TEST WAS DESIGNED TO REDUCE THE NUMBER OF VARIABLES NEEDED IN AN ACTUAL FIELD TEST ENVIRONMENT.
SUBJECTS IN AUTOMOBILE RECORDING DISTANCE AT WHICH TEST WORDS BECOME LEGIBLE ON TEST TRACK.
TESTING FOR MAXIMUM LEGIBILITY BY INCREASING OR DECREASING LETTERSPACE.
THE EFFECTS OF NIGHT BRIGHTNESS MATERIALS ON LEGIBILITY DURING NIGHTIME VIEWING.
If drivers were traveling at 45 mph that translated to 84 additional feet of reading distance. This gives a driver significantly more time to comprehend and react to the information they are reading.
Pennsylvania was one of the first states to willingly adopt the new typeface since it isn’t yet mandatory for states to change their signs to the Clearview-Bold typeface. The original legibility study was conducted by the Pennsylvania Transportation Institute. The results found that Clearview-Bold actually improved the reading distance of nighttime drivers by up to 16% compared to Highway Gothic E-modified.
In the same study by the Pennsylvania Transportation Institute they also compared Clearview-Condensed and Highway’s Series D all-upper-case typeface. In order to make Clearview-Condensed have an equal overall footprint as Series-D they had to increase it by 12%. Again they tested for reading accuracy, viewing distance, and reaction time. This time there was at least a minimum of a 14% increase in recognition and in some cases up to a 29% increase, with the greatest increases found in elderly drivers.
As of 2013, 20 to 30 states have adopted the Clearview Font. Some states which include: Texas (statewide) Pennsylvania British Columbia Toronto (older version) Yukon other Canadian municipalities It may take years for everyone to adopt the typeface Clearview. It is the states decision if they want to do so, and the states must request interim approval from the Federal Highway Administration before doing so.
Annotated Bibliography AdcSTUDIO. “What Is ClearviewHWY?” ClearviewHwy. Terminal Design Inc., n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2015. I used this website a lot during my research on the topic of the Clearview font. In my project I used information pertaining to how Clearview enhancing your legibility, improves recognition distance/reaction time, reduced halation, and many more things. I also used information pertaining to the letterform design. I talked about how the lowercase is taller so the interior shapes of the letters are more open to allow the clear definition of each letter. I also used information on how the team went about designing the new and improved highway typeface. I talked about how they mixed typefaces and how they took special interest in certain characters because of their counters, ascenders, and descenders. Lastly, I used a lot of imagery form this website to use in my presentation. This website had great images that showcased the in depth research and testing they did to fully make sure the typeface would work on the roads. Coles, Stephen, Caren Litherland, and Chris Hamamoto. “Clearview: A New Typeface for US Highways.” Typgraphica. FontShop, n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2015. In my research presentation over typography and the road sign I used this website which is kind of an entry site that this company writes in every month. On October 27, 2004 they talked about the font Clearview. In this article they discussed how clearview is a new typeface for the United States Highways. They talked about how the signs will become more legible and that the US Federal Government finally has given full approval of Clearview to be used on Federal roads. In my presentation a used some information at the end about which states have already adopted to the Clearview as their Federal road signs font. Pennysylvania would be one of the greatest contributors to exercising the font first. As of 2013, 20 t0 30 states have adopted the Clearview typeface. Some states which include Texas, Pennsylvania, British Columbia, Toronto, Yukon, and other Canadian states. Highway System. Dept. of Global Studies & Geography, 1998. Web. 23 Apr. 2015. While researching about the highway systems I came across this website that started talking about the first highway system there was which I am assuming was the Lincoln highway, but they didn’t mention the name. In my presentation I talked out loud about how the United States sent army trucks all the way across the nation to test out the roadways to make sure they were safe enough for people to drive on. It took them 62 days to go all the way across the nation. I thought that that was an interesting fact to include into my presentation. It interested me that it took that long to go all the way across the nation.
History.com Staff. “The Interstate Highway System.” History.com. A&E Networks, 2010. Web. 23 Apr. 2015. In my research presentation about Typography and the Road sign I go into detail about how President Dwight D. Eisenhower who signed the Federal Aid Highway Act in 1956 during his presidency. He had a plan to expand the nations interstate system. He had an estimated budget of $ 26 billion but it ended up being around $114 billion when finished. Most of the things I included in my presentation from this website were the straight factual numbers that were give. In the history.com website there was a lot of information about the interstate highway system and how many things happened before, during, and after the interstate was finished. I didn’t include much from this website but it did give me the understanding of what all went on during this time and how much impact the interstate will soon have on typography and the expansion of the road signs. Moeur, Richard. “Standard Sign Typefaces.” Manual of Traffic Signs. Federal Highway Administration, n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2015. The trafficsigh.us is one of the websites that I used the most during this presentation. The website went through the Standard Sign Typefaces used for the highway sign in the US which are defined in the Standard Alphabets for Traffic Control Devices published by the Federal Highway Administration. I included in my presentation that the Highway Gothic typeface is a sans serif font, which was created by Ted Forbes. Some information that I pulled from this website was the six fonts from the series “Highway Gothic”. The website showed a graphic which I included in my presentation about the different FHWA series B-F. I also pulled some information about the variations of styles, which are created by the amount of white space between each letter and the actual width of each letter.
Weingroff, Richard. “Highway History.” The Lincoln Highway. U.S Department of Transportation, n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2015. The beginning of my presentation about Typography and the Road Sign I wanted to start off with how we even have road signs in the first place. We wouldn’t have road signs if the Lincoln highway were never built. When researching the Lincoln Highway I came across the U.S Department of Transportation. This website gave me tremendous detail about a lot of the roadways created at this time. In my presentation I included when the highway was built which was in 1913. I talked about how it passed through 700 cities and towns and how successful it was for the government, businesses’, and people. The Lincoln highway inspired the rest of the roadways to come after it was built which helps me build up into my next slides of my presentation.
Standard Alphabets for Traffic Control Devices. Sydney: National Association of Australian State Road Authorities, 1988. Federal Highway Administration. Web. 23 Apr. 2015. When using this website it took me to a link an interactive pdf. This pdf was the Standard Alphabets For Traffic Control Devices. I pulled a lot of information and graphic from this pdf as well. Some information that I pulled was FHWA came up with a procedure to convert spacing values into limited codes. Then after awhile software industries specify the fonts to assume that every character will be positioned with a bounding box and it will be assigned a fixed value. I also pulled some images that were showing the dissecting and distributing of space values assigned to each character. This method provides a more even flow of black to white shapes which helps increase readability. Then lastly I pulled information for my presentation about how Highway Gothic E modified was the most commonly used in the series.
Rodrigue, Jean-Paul, Dr. “The Interstate Highway System.” The Interstate When researching the Interstate Highway System I came across this website which talked about the growth of the interstate system over time. One fact that I pulled from this website I thought was interesting was in 1919, the United States sent army trucks on a journey across the United States, to test the roads for efficiency and to see if they were safe enough for citizens. It took the army trucks 62 days to go across the nation. I included this because I thought it was interesting how long it took them to go that far. Later on in the article it goes into detail about Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Interstate Highway System and how much it changed the United States. Without the highway system the road signs wouldn’t exist or wouldn’t be as developed.
Weingroff, Richard. “Summer 1996Vol. 60· No. 1.” Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956: Creating the Interstate System. U.S Department of Transportation, n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2015. Again when researching about the Interstate System, I came across on one of the same websites are before the Federal- Aid Highway Act of 1956: Creating the Interstate System. The part from this website that I used was a quote that was said by Dwight D. Eisenhower. The quote was, “Together, the united forces of our communication and transportation systems are dynamic elements in the very name we bear - United States. Without them, we would be a mere alliance of many separate parts.” I thought that this was a fitting quote for my presentation because I think that it is very impactful and wise words of President Eisenhower. Without the transportation system we wouldn’t be who we are today. We wouldn’t be about to communicate as freely as we do and we wouldn’t be as united and whole as we are. As he said we would be an alliance but we would be separate parts because without the interstate system we are disconnected.
Yaffa, Joshua. “The Road to Clarity.� The New York Times. The New York Times, 11 Aug. 2007. Web. 23 Apr. 2015. In The New York Times website there was a magazine article published in August of 2007 talking about the Road to Clarity. This article began to talk about a story of someone asking an older lady to read the sign, which she usually could not. But this time she could read it because it was Clearview instead of Highway Gothic. They describe Clearview as lightness, a noticeable crispness to the letters. I pulled some information from this article that included when the Federal Highway Administration granted Clearview interim approval in 2004, meaning the states were free to begin using Clearview on their road signs. I also included that 20 to 30 States were using Clearview already. Lastly the New York Times website had some good pictures of Clearview used in signage, so I took some of those picture and integrated them into my presentation.