The Decades-Long Fight Over The Font on Highway Signs

Summary

The video explores the fascinating history and debate behind the two official U.S. highway typefaces: Highway Gothic and Clearview. Originating in the 1950s with inconsistent, hand-painted road signs, Highway Gothic became standard but faced legibility issues, especially at night. Clearview, developed later, improved readability with expanded letter spacing and taller characters, but its adoption was hindered by bureaucratic challenges and mixed performance on negative contrast signs. Today, both typefaces coexist, leaving a mix of signage nationwide. The video combines historical context, typographic science, and quirky anecdotes to reveal how design, technology, and politics shape something as ubiquitous as road signs.

Takeaways

• 😀 The United States has two official road sign typefaces, Highway Gothic and Clear View, which have sparked decades-long debates over which one is better.
• 😀 Highway Gothic was initially used on American road signs and was chosen due to its readability and ease of production, even though it wasn't designed with much testing or consideration.
• 😀 Early American road signs were not standardized and were often hand-painted by local auto clubs, leading to inconsistent designs across the country.
• 😀 One of the issues with Highway Gothic was that it was designed to accommodate reflective button copy technology, which is now outdated and causes problems with modern reflective materials.
• 😀 Button copy, which helped make road signs visible at night, was replaced by retroreflective sheeting, revealing design flaws in Highway Gothic that made letters look blurry or indistinguishable at night.
• 😀 In the 1990s, the Clear View typeface was developed as an improved alternative, designed to solve the readability problems associated with Highway Gothic, especially at night.
• 😀 Clear View had better performance in tests, showing a 16% improvement in readability over Highway Gothic, particularly when reading signs at a distance or at night.
• 😀 The adoption of Clear View was slow and disorganized due to bureaucratic issues, confusion about its correct use, and the cost of licensing the typeface directly from its creator.
• 😀 The Federal Highway Administration approved Clear View for optional use in 2004, but some states were hesitant to implement it, while others used it incorrectly, leading to widespread inconsistencies.
• 😀 In 2016, the Federal Highway Administration banned Clear View due to its performance issues with negative contrast signs, but after public outcry and political pressure, it was reinstated in 2018.
• 😀 As of now, both Highway Gothic and Clear View are still in use, but the inconsistent application of these typefaces across states continues to create challenges for road sign readability.

Q & A

Why can you often identify a country just by looking at a road sign?

Because the typeface used on road signs is often unique to that country, allowing you to recognize it even without reading the text.

What was the main reason for adopting a standardized typeface in the U.S. in 1956?

The rapid expansion of the interstate system required standardized road signs to ensure readability and consistency across the country.

What is Highway Gothic, and why was it originally designed?

Highway Gothic is a typeface adopted for U.S. road signs, designed to be legible at a distance and compatible with reflective 'button copy' technology.

What problem arose with Highway Gothic as reflective technology evolved?

The letters were made chunky to accommodate button copy, but with modern retroreflective sheeting, this chunkiness causes light bloom, making letters harder to read at night.

Who developed the Clearview typeface and what improvements did it make over Highway Gothic?

Donald Mer developed Clearview, which increased interior spaces in letters, made uppercase letters taller, and refined ambiguous tails, improving readability, especially at night.

Why was the adoption of Clearview typeface inconsistent across U.S. states?

States had to purchase the font directly from Donald Mer and often misapplied it regarding font size, character usage, and spacing, leading to inconsistent signage.

What issue did Clearview face with negative contrast signs?

Clearview's slimmer letter forms, designed for positive contrast (white on dark backgrounds), were harder to read on negative contrast signs (dark text on light backgrounds).

What is the current status of Highway Gothic and Clearview on U.S. road signs?

Both typefaces are officially valid and in use, with Highway Gothic being more traditional and Clearview available for optional use, creating a mixed signage landscape.

How did historical signage technology influence the design of Highway Gothic?

Highway Gothic was designed around button copy, an older reflective technology, which required thicker letters to hold reflective buttons for nighttime visibility.

What lessons does the Highway Gothic vs. Clearview story teach about design decisions in public infrastructure?

Even seemingly small design choices, like typefaces, involve technical, historical, and political considerations, and can significantly impact usability, safety, and adoption.

Why did older drivers particularly struggle with Highway Gothic signage?

Because the interior spaces in letters were too small and nighttime illumination caused letters to blur, reducing legibility for people with age-related vision decline.

What role did bureaucracy play in the rollout of Clearview?

Bureaucracy complicated Clearview's adoption through inconsistent state-level implementation, purchase requirements, and unclear usage guidelines, delaying widespread use.