Suitable fonts for Industrial loco "Signwriting"- Word, downloads?

[brianthesnail96]

Hi all,

 

I'm going to get some custom transfers made up for my Ixion Manning Wardle- as a bit of a change from the normal cast nameplate on the I'd like the company name. There are a few suitable "plain" fonts in Word that would do, but what I'd really like is a proper signwritten style with a shadow as the examples below:

 

Lady Nan

 

AB 1931

 

Clydesmill No. 3

 

Or even something a bit simpler, as used by the NCB:

 

Netherton No. 50

 

West Ayr No. 24

 

Apologies for the links instead of photos, I don't want to breach copyright.

 

Any suggestions gratefully received- I have had a play in Powerpoint and Word with limited success, I would really like the shadow if possible. Happy to pay to download a font if it's a good 'un! I'm sure the fleet will expand in the future so I'll need to do more locos at some point.

 

Cheers

 

Matt

[Arthur]

Matt,

 

I've done something similar, in 4mm, here;

 

 

Yellow with a black drop shadow. I did the artwork and they were made up by John Peck at Presion Transfers.

 

At John's recommendation I used Serif PagePlus, a desktop publishing package. I'd have to check what the font was, I just wanted something traditional looking with a serif.

 

The software allowed me to add the drop shadow.

 

I basically had to submit three pages of artwork, one for the black drop shadow and, because yellow is translucent, three (white,magenta and yellow) to get the rich yellow I wanted.

 

If you want any more info. just ask.

[Pugsley]

How about this?

 

http://www.dafont.com/sans-serif-shaded.font

[Pacific231G]

In what period are you setting it? Though I suppose most people wouldn't notice it's very easy to use a font that hadn't been designed yet. There was an article about signwriters' fonts in MRC many years ago which I think I've still got somewhere so will try to dig out. A very small company might have left it up to a signwriter but a more substantial one would likely have had some kind of corporate style for their own name if nothing else. 

[brianthesnail96]

Cheers for the suggestions folks.

 

It's set in the early 60's, it's a fairly small concern ("Ruston" Dave's 'Bury Thorn & Sons' layout).

 

I should add- I'd want to be able to change the colour of the shadow as well as the text, as the loco is black I'd like red and cream/ yellow.

 

Arthur's Sentinel is very similar to what I had in mind- I'll have a look at Serif PagePlus.

 

Thanks all!

[Neil]

In the past if I've wanted to print a drop shaded font then I've selected an ordinary font in the shading colour and typed out the sign. Then I copy and paste and change the colour to that require for the lettering itself, then I overlay the re-colored copy a little off set over the drop shade coloured lettering. Not perfect but quite acceptable in most cases. Here's a sign where I added highlights in a similar manner.

 

[Pacific231G]

For a small (engineering?) company like that it might be worth looking at some company names on lorries of the same period. I think they'd use the same style for a works loco.

[brianthesnail96]

That's very cunning Neil, thanks- I think I can make that work

 

David, I have actually been looking at lorries- but they are normally a more "artistic" style than generally seen on steam locomotives- and unfortunately although there are some really nice examples it doesn't help in creating a virtual version. I do actually know a signwriter but I think he may be a bit bemused being asked to work in 7mm/ ft, instead of on the classic lorries he is used to.