Traffic Sign Typefaces: Tratex (Sweden)

The swedish typeface for traffic signs is called Tratex and was designed by Karl-Gustav Gustafson and modified by Chester Bernsten.

Tratex is available in 4 styles. The first one is called Svart (“Black”):

Vit (“White”). It has an increased spacing to compensate the overglow effect.

PosVersal (“Positive Caps”):

NegVersal (“Negavite Caps”). Identical to PosVersal, but with increased spacing:

Swedish signs are mostly set in all caps. This seems to be a common practice in all Scandinavian countries.

Signs with lowercase letters seemed to be reserved for local targets and tourist information signs.

You can download the Tratex fonts from the website of the Swedish Road Administration (MacOS X Diskimage here). The quality of those fonts is really bad. There is also a version from URW++, but they only offer one style.

• Other Blog entries about traffic typefaces
• Flickr group Type on Traffic Signs