Comments on: Designing the ultimate wayfinding typeface

By: Ralf Herrmann

Ralf Herrmann — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 11:34:02 +0000

That image should just demonstrate the effect in general and therefore I chose 3 type styles with 3 different stroke widths.

By: Tom dG

Tom dG — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 10:24:04 +0000

This looks like a good typeface, and the development is certainly interesting.

However, the halation example with ‘Transport Bold’ is not really fair. As you are no doubt aware, the typeface face comes in two weights, actually called Transport Heavy and Transport Medium. Heavy is for use in black on a light background, whilst Medium is for use reversed out, to compensate for the effect of halation. In the example above, it would have been fairer to compare your typeface with Transport Medium.

By: Stuart Crawford

Stuart Crawford — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 17:55:03 +0000

Really enjoyed seeing the process behind the font. I was just about to buy one or two weights when I came across this. Thanks

By: Ralf Herrmann

Ralf Herrmann — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 10:17:01 +0000

Yes, there will be an additional set of pictograms:
http://opentype.info/blog/2011/04/13/wayfinding-symbols-with-opentype-magic/

By: Darren

Darren — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 10:13:57 +0000

Hi Ralf

Smashing project. I wondered, do you have plans to include a set of pictograms to accompany the typeface?

By: Ralf Herrmann

Ralf Herrmann — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 16:04:01 +0000

Clearview HWY and Wayfinding Sans are or will be both good choices for many signage projects. I don’t necessarily need to find out if one should perform slightly better in certain situations. Especially since the choice of typeface is just one of many many variables that make a good wayfinding system.

An obvious difference is the rather extreme x-height of Clearview HWY, which works fine for the US signs it was made. In contrast, Wayfinding Sans has very prominent diacritical marks which are important for signage in many countries outside of the US.

By: Carl

Carl — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 20:05:09 +0000

Your work is important and impressive. I would like to see comparison data or font with Terminal Design’s “Clearview Hwy” font adopted for use on road signs in the USA.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:46:46 +0000

Ralf — Could you summarize in a sentence or two what the differences would be (as I’d like to understand)?

My considerations:
Large font at a distance.
People with varying eyesight.
Maximizing readability.
A font without “distractions” or flair to take away from the content.

I don’t put too many words on a slide, but when I do, I like them to be readable.

I’m doing a presentation today for more than 200 people and had been hunting around for something “different.” (Although, it’s much too late for me to be switching fonts, etc. now anyway — but I’d read through your excellent post with great interest).

By: Ralf Herrmann

Ralf Herrmann — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:38:02 +0000

Sure, it’s work in progress.
It’s not a screen font though. There are some similarities in terms of legibility, but making a screen font out of it, would be an entirely different project.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:34:43 +0000

Ralf — are you still planning on making this available? I see that this was posted nearly 2 1/2 years ago — I was interested in trying the font in some presentations to see if it helped with legibility for those who don’t sit as close to the screen.

By: Martijn de Heer

Martijn de Heer — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:31:11 +0000

Amazing! Very nice how you designed it and those little changes but that make a big difference in legibility! Beautiful!

By: Fitoschido

Fitoschido — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 11:37:04 +0000

This typeface would perform excellent for signage in Mexico, where we suffer a mixture of Interstate and Arial (the latter being more common as the time passes).

By: eMPee584

eMPee584 — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 09:14:00 +0000

To put it simple: you actually created the most readable font style i ever witnissed. Now try and get it standardized as an European Norm! Send the International Road Federation (irfnet.org – “Better roads, better world”) a nice set of high-quality example printouts! Don’t stop at this excellent blog post! You can do it Ralf

By: Edina

Edina — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 17:15:47 +0000

A very informative article. This helps me a lot for my campus project. Thank you so much!

By: René

René — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 11:22:37 +0000

The European TERN-font is really a joke. Althought I think Wayfinding is surely better legible than Tiresias Signfont or Transport, I still like DIN and Highway Gothic (in my country: RWS-Ee, RWS-Dd and RWS-Cc) most.