Fonts
You are here: Home - Media - Fonts
The road traffic signs of Britain use a particular set of typefaces. Official documents have been used to create versions of the different alphabets used on the UK road traffic signs.
Each font comes in a zip file with installation instructions and an image showing some of the available characters.
Some of these fonts do not work properly on Mac OS and with Adobe software. This has now been fixed for Transport Heavy and Transport Medium, with thanks to Martin Turner.
Commercial use
Transport is a very clear, distinctive and 'friendly' typeface and it's increasingly in demand for commercial use. The versions of Transport and other fonts you can download from this page are not professionally designed, and were only intended for private non-commercial use.
If you'd like to use Transport in a professional project, you are advised to get the professional version. It's available from the URW++ font foundry.
If you like these fonts, you might be interested that Frank Rausch has created free font versions of the alphabets used on French and German road signs.
Transport Medium
The Transport font is the principal font used on British road signs. Transport Medium is the lighter variant (ie, composed of narrower strokes) used for light text on a dark background. Converted for PC use by Nathaniel Porter.
Transport Medium
ZIP file (28kb) transportm.zip
Transport Heavy
This is (as the name suggests) a heavier version of the Transport font, for use with dark text on a lighter background. Converted for PC use by Nathaniel Porter.
Transport Heavy
ZIP file (32kb) transporth.zip
Motorway Permanent
The Motorway font is used for route numbers on motorway signage, and therefore this font contains numbers and just a handful of letters and punctuation. Converted for PC use by Nathaniel Porter.
Motorway Permanent
ZIP file (60kb) motorwayp.zip
Motorway Temporary
As the name suggests, this is a version of the Motorway font (above) for use on temporary signs - the reason is that temporary signs require dark text on a light background and so a heavier alphabet is used. Converted for PC use by Nathaniel Porter.
Motorway Temporary
ZIP file (20kb) motorwayt.zip
Pavement
This font is supposedly the one used for painted lettering on the road surface - it's a vertically stretched version of Transport Medium. Realistically it's rarely used as almost all lettering on the road surface is hand-painted. It contains a taller set for use on higher speed roads. Converted for PC use by Nathaniel Porter.
Pavement
ZIP file (44kb) pavement.zip
VMS
Variable Message Signs (also known as electronic or matrix signs) compose their messages with light-up panels. Exactly which lights turn on for each letter is decided with this font. Converted for PC use by Nathaniel Porter.
VMS
ZIP file (12kb) vms.zip
Old Road Signs Font
Before the current road signage system, outlined in the Worboys Report, came in to force in 1964, British road signs looked very different. This is the lettering they used. Converted for PC use by Tom Sutch.
Old Road Sign Font
ZIP file (12kb) oldroadsign.zip
The fonts on this page are distributed free of charge. With thanks to Richard Jones and Matthew Singh for information on this page.
