A Note About Fonts

Not quite 3d printing, but something that requires addressing when adding transfers to a model.

There are literally thousands of fonts out there, and finding the right one can  be a bit of a minefield. A lot of fonts are really quite funky; because they are different you can readily spot what makes them stand out. What is more tricking is selecting the right font when it is very ordinary.


Major Differences

So what are the differences to look for? 

Here are some example fonts found on most Windows PCs (Apple will have their own equivalents).


One obvious difference is serif or sans serif, and fonts are usually categorised on this basis. A serif is a flourish at the end of a curve. They tend to make long passages easier to read, so are used in books and newspapers. Sans serif font have no such flourish, and so look plainer.

Another is the vertical weight versus the horizontal weight. Usually the vertical lines are thicker, this is called "stressed", but sometimes the line width is constant, this is "monoline". There are optical illusions that can affect a character, and font designers may make the line vary in width in such a way that they appear to all be the same thickness.

How straight are the straight lines? Some fonts have slight curves, especially at the bottom of the a and d, and the top of the m, n, p and r. See also Comic Sans above.

A monospaced font has all characters the same width, like something created on a typewriter. Most fonts have a smaller width for "i", larger for "m" and "w"


Specific Characters

Some specific characters can be very different between fonts. Note especially "a" and "g".

Usually "a" has a hat on it, this is the "double-storey" version; the "single-storey" "a" has no hat, and is what people write. In the image above, Comic Sans uses the "single-storey" version; it is more common in italic fonts.

The "g" usually has a looptail, rather than an open tail, the latter again being more common in handwriting.

The "q" may or may not have a hook on its tail (but that can be harder to spot as "q" is quite a rare character).

The "t" may curl at the bottom, or may be straight.

The "f" might curl to the left.

Lower case "j" might not curl to the left.

Does the tail of the "y" curve or not?

Check out the central peak in both "w" and "W". Do the two lines come to a peak at the full character height, or below that; or do the lines cross; or do they meet, and one stops while the other continues?

The capital "A" might be an enlarged lowercase "a". The only time I have seen this is my Aunt's handwriting, so may not be a thing anymore!


Railway Fonts

British Railways used Gill Sans from 1959. This is a very plain, monoline, sans serif font.

https://www.strathpefferjunction.com/download/british-rail-font-gill-sans/


This was replaced by a specially designed "Rail Alphabet" when it became British Rail and adopted the blue livery. It is fairly similar to Gill Sans.

https://www.strathpefferjunction.com/download/british-rail-fonts-rail-alphabet/


Some later fonts are also giving on this page:

https://www.strathpefferjunction.com/british-railway-typefaces-fonts/

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