Old style number plate font

[John M Upton]

Hello

 

I want to make up some number plates for a early 1960's Matchbox J2 Pick-Up that I have just reworked.  The sticking point is the number plates as I cannot find the correct font for them, all I can find is the naff post 2001 narrow version.

 

Can anyone point me in the right direction please?

 

Many thanks!

[northernblue109]

Shouldn't make much difference at 1/76 scale given that most printers seem to work at 300 dpi. For Photoshop work, I use Arial Bold for older style plates and Mandatory Bold the for current style.

 

Hello

 

I want to make up some number plates for a early 1960's Matchbox J2 Pick-Up that I have just reworked.  The sticking point is the number plates as I cannot find the correct font for them, all I can find is the naff post 2001 narrow version.

 

Can anyone point me in the right direction please?

 

Many thanks!

[Malc2085]

Hello

 

I want to make up some number plates for a early 1960's Matchbox J2 Pick-Up that I have just reworked.  The sticking point is the number plates as I cannot find the correct font for them, all I can find is the naff post 2001 narrow version.

 

Can anyone point me in the right direction please?

 

Many thanks!

 

The number plate font you require is called "Charles Wright Font" named after the designer I believe. If you "Google"  it you should be able to download it and then it comes up with all the other fonts in MS Word (well it does on my computer anyway).  

[quicksilvercoaches]

The number plate font you require is called "Charles Wright Font" named after the designer I believe. If you "Google"  it you should be able to download it and then it comes up with all the other fonts in MS Word (well it does on my computer anyway).  

Charles Wright is the current post-2001 font - don't use it on a 1960s vehicle as it won't look right. Prior to this there was actually no single standard font and despite extensive searching I've sadly never yet found anything that accurately represents of any of them. Arial is generally a reasonable substitute in small scales but isn't quite right, especially the wide letters like M and W that are too wide. I've tried Arial Narrow for these letters but it doesn't quite work as the point sizes aren't exactly the same and an Arial Narrow W is noticeably shorter than Arial letters of the same size. If anyone does find a downloadable version of a pre-2001 font I'd love to hear about it as the wrong type of plates on classic cars is one of my bugbears and that extends to my models.

[Malc2085]

Charles Wright is the current post-2001 font - don't use it on a 1960s vehicle as it won't look right. Prior to this there was actually no single standard font and despite extensive searching I've sadly never yet found anything that accurately represents of any of them. Arial is generally a reasonable substitute in small scales but isn't quite right, especially the wide letters like M and W that are too wide. I've tried Arial Narrow for these letters but it doesn't quite work as the point sizes aren't exactly the same and an Arial Narrow W is noticeably shorter than Arial letters of the same size. If anyone does find a downloadable version of a pre-2001 font I'd love to hear about it as the wrong type of plates on classic cars is one of my bugbears and that extends to my models.

Thanks for the information, am I not right in thinking that there was a Charles Wright 1935 Font, which was a wider version of the current font. When I was trying to find out information about number plate fonts I came across this website    https://www.k-type.com/who-was-charles-wright/    The first line of the website sums it all up perfectly really  "It is surprisingly difficult to find information about the origins of the fonts used for vehicle number plates in Britain". I presume originally before 1935 dealers in early cars, lorries,  tractors and steam engines just painted the number on the vehicles freehand, did they have a manual of what the fonts were to look like and if so was it the Local Vehicle Licensing Office (LVLO) which gave them out. It wasn't such a nanny state then.   I don't know I am sure others have more knowledge than me? 

[quicksilvercoaches]

I can't answer any of those questions but what I can do is reveal a means of making authentic pre-2001 plates. There are various firms who make 'show' plates in a variety of fonts, some of which are clearly illegal and only suitable for off-road use, but they also include some of the older styles. They usually have a preview system on their website that allows you to type in any registration you want and customise the plate font, size etc. By downloading the preview images and resizing them you can create authentic plates - helpfully they often include the dimensions so just divide these by your scale and resize the images to those values and your plates will even end up exactly the right size.

 

The Serck style is my favourite and these two Fodens are now wearing authentic Serck plates thanks to the above method.

[Merfyn Jones]

I can't answer any of those questions but what I can do is reveal a means of making authentic pre-2001 plates. There are various firms who make 'show' plates in a variety of fonts, some of which are clearly illegal and only suitable for off-road use, but they also include some of the older styles. They usually have a preview system on their website that allows you to type in any registration you want and customise the plate font, size etc. By downloading the preview images and resizing them you can create authentic plates - helpfully they often include the dimensions so just divide these by your scale and resize the images to those values and your plates will even end up exactly the right size.

 

The Serck style is my favourite and these two Fodens are now wearing authentic Serck plates thanks to the above method.

WUB383S_YHK924L.jpg

 

The same way I have used for many years. However the older plates had larger lettering (3.5") so I just print 10% bigger than the modern (7 digit) It works for me.

[alastairq]

http://www.peakplates.co.uk/peak-number-plates.html

 

The above may give some idea of het font to look for?  It is Bluemels version. [Look at figure 5?]

[Kiwi]

I generally use the “carplates” font mentioned on this site (scroll down to the United Kingdom” section):

 

http://www.leewardpro.com/articles/licplatefonts/licplate-fonts-eur-2.html

[ianmacc]

This thread spurred me on to make an overdue change to my vehicles. Four taxis with the same registration changed to a more era-appropriate and different (!) range of plates. Did a few other vehicles that were early 90s plated and backdated them to 80s plates.

[ianmacc]

This thread spurred me on to make an overdue change to my vehicles. Four taxis with the same registration changed to a more era-appropriate and different (!) range of plates. Did a few other vehicles that were early 90s plated and backdated them to 80s plates.

[JZ]

I bought this. http://www.modelrailwayscenery.com/2014/05/editable-vintage-uk-vehicle-registration-plates-64-to-73-oo4mm176/ Print them off onto white transfer paper or just onto whit paper.

[John M Upton]

I bought this. http://www.modelrailwayscenery.com/2014/05/editable-vintage-uk-vehicle-registration-plates-64-to-73-oo4mm176/ Print them off onto white transfer paper or just onto whit paper.

 

Yes, I tried them but they are the wrong font, they come up with the narrow post 2001 version unfortunately.

[w124bob]

An informative article appeared back in MRJ146, I've just scanned through it and can't see a reference to font. However it gives a full list of the vehicle registration offices and letters used appropriate upto the change to the current format. So for instance the two black cabs are registerd FJE JE is the Isle of Ely, whilst ASG SG being Edinburgh.

[mikeharvey22]

For pre-1973 registrations this site takes some beating. By clicking on the blue letter codes on the right of the home page you can pin down the year a particular registration was issued.

 

 

http://www.oldclassiccar.co.uk/registrations/reg-letters.htm

[leopardml2341]

On 18/10/2018 at 19:30, mikeharvey22 said:

For pre-1973 registrations this site takes some beating. By clicking on the blue letter codes on the right of the home page you can pin down the year a particular registration was issued.

 

 

http://www.oldclassiccar.co.uk/registrations/reg-letters.htm

Beware that site. Not all years are accurate.

 

I had a look at my hometown 'ET' letters and make the following observations, all based on observed bus registrations:

 

There were also NET***J, PET*** J, and WET*** L

 

3 discrepancies in a relatively small allocation.

 

Pics below from Flickr links; would have preferred to use RCT liveried examples though

 

 

 

 

Edited July 30, 2019 by leopardml2341

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

The inaccuracy could be down to the fact that bus companies, both private and corporation owned, tended to block "reserve" registrations, and some licensing authorities, Sheffield being one, allocated certain series/correlations of marks to commercial vehicles and PSV's and that combination wouldn't appear on cars.

 

Mike.

[Mike Harvey]

The site is explicit about being accurate only up to 1972, as qualified in my post (i.e. pre-1973). All the same it might be worth advising the site owner of the additional information. Likely the base data is from local authority records, which might not have included special allocations which these appear to be., and became fragmented by local authority reorganisation, and the switch to DVLA.

Edited July 30, 2019 by Mike Harvey