Font that approximates typeface used on GWR / LNWR signs and software to tweak it

[Harlequin]

32 minutes ago, flockandroll said:

Thanks to all contributors. I have downloaded several fonts and used Swiss 721 black heavy. If I want to take it further I will probably opt to try Coral Draw. 

As for pretty much everything that wasn't cast from metal, as the recent thread that originally was about coach roof destination boards showed, nearly everything was hand painted by signwritters to fit the available space: there are some excellent pictures of signwritters at work in that thread. 

 

For the record, Swiss 721 was designed in 1982 and is a version of Helvetica, which was designed in 1957.

 

 

[Stephen Freeman]

You could try looking up Swindon Font, I can't remember where I got it from but certainly looks the business to me.

[BachelorBoy]

Funnily enough, I am working on such a typeface at the moment, working from photos of station signs. 

 

Progress depends on how interesting TV is in the evening.

 

[melmerby]

On 10/10/2023 at 11:43, Stephen Freeman said:

You could try looking up Swindon Font, I can't remember where I got it from but certainly looks the business to me.

These days the net wont find anything Swindon Like as there is a curly whirly font called "Swindon"!☹️

[Harlequin]

The post-1891 GWR running-in board font is available from the GWR e-list on groups.io. It's a bit basic and doesn't include all the characters you might want. The same outlines are published in "Great Western Way".

 

The GWR station signage font (for things like "Gentlemen") is very similar to the running in board font but there might be some detail differences. It would be useful to have some of the special symbols like finger-point direction indicators.

 

The GWR post-1891 signal box nameplate font is different again, particularly in the A character and I have created a font for that, including the more exotic characters. (See link in my signature.)

 

There are no fonts for the pre-1891 all-cast-iron running-in boards that I know of. They would work for pre-1891 signal box nameplates as well, I think.