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The FHWA Series fonts (often informally referred to as Highway Gothic) are a set of sans-serif typefaces developed by the United States Federal Highway Administration and used for road signage in the U.S. and Canada. The fonts were created to maximize legibility at a distance and at high speed, growing out of research by the California Department of Transportation. They are officially defined by the FHWA's "Standard Alphabets for Traffic Control Devices", originally published in the late 1950s. Changes to the specifications were published in 1966, 1977, and 2000.

The set consists of seven fonts: "A" (the narrowest), "B", "C", "D", "E", "E(M)" (a modified version of "E" with wider strokes), and "F" (the widest). Series "A" has been officially discontinued, and is only seen today on older signage.

The fonts originally included only uppercase letters, with the exception of "E(M)", which was used on large expressway and freeway guide signs. In 2004, the FHWA added lowercase letters to all of the typefaces and made changes to the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices allowing their use.

In recent years, the FHWA series of fonts has been adopted by many companies for branding; for example, NBC uses it for NBC Sports captions, and TV Guide uses the typeface on its cover.

Over the next few decades, the new Clearview typeface, also specifically developed for use on traffic signs, is expected to replace the FHWA series on new signage.

Samples

FHWA Series D

FHWA Series E

FHWA Series F

See also

• Typefaces used on North American traffic signs

References