Clearview (typeface)

Category	Sans-serif
Designer(s)	Donald Meeker James Montalbano Christopher O'Hara Martin Pietrucha Philip Garvey
Foundry	Terminal Design Inc.
Sample

Clearview, also known as Clearview Hwy, is the name of a humanist sans-serif typeface family for guide signs on roads in the United States. It was developed by independent researchers with the help of the Texas Transportation Institute and the Pennsylvania Transportation Institute, under the supervision of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). It is expected to gradually replace the FHWA typefaces over the next few decades in many applications.^[1]

History

The standard FHWA typefaces, developed in the 1940s, were designed to work with a system of highway signs in which almost all words are capitalized. The designers of Clearview sought to create a typeface adapted for mixed-case signage, initially expecting it would be based on an existing European sans-serif typeface.^[2] Instead, using a similar weight to the FHWA fonts, a new font was created from scratch. Two key differences are much larger counter spaces, the enclosed spaces in letters like the lower case "e" or "a," and a higher x-height, the relative height of the lower case "x" to the upper case "X." Smaller counter spaces in the FHWA fonts reduced legibility, particularly when the letters glowed from headlight illumination at night.

Official acceptance

Clearview was granted interim approval by the FHWA for use on positive contrast road signs (light legend on dark background, such as white on green, blue, or brown) on September 2, 2004.^[3] The FHWA has not granted approval for Clearview to be used on negative contrast road signs (dark legend on light background, such as black on white or yellow), given its inferior legibility to the existing FHWA typefaces in these applications,^[4] although it is used in this fashion in Pennsylvania. The FHWA also refused to add Clearview to the 2009 MUTCD, citing lack of testing on Clearview's numerals, symbols, and narrower typefaces.^[5]

Variants

In addition to its appearance on road signage, a customized version of the ClearviewText typeface was adopted by AT&T for corporate use, including advertising, beginning in 2006.^[1] ClearviewText and ClearviewADA are versions of the typeface intended for use in general graphic design and ADA-compliant signage.

An example of the Clearview typeface.

See also

A Clearview highway sign in Farmington Hills, Michigan, installed in 2005 near the terminus of westbound I-696. Notice, however, that the numbers within the shields utilize the traditional FHWA typface.

• Public signage typefaces

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Yaffa, Joshua (August 12, 2007). "The Road to Clarity". The New York Times Magazine. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/12/magazine/12fonts-t.html?pagewanted=all. Retrieved June 5, 2009. 
2. ^ Meeker and Associates / Terminal Design, Inc. ClearviewHWY Research & Design Development. Retrieved on 15 April 2007.
3. ^ Federal Highway Administration. Interim Approval for Use of Clearview Font for Positive Contrast Legends on Guide Signs. 2 September 2004. Retrieved on 8 May 2006.
4. ^ Evaluation of the Clearview Font for Negative Contrast Traffic Signs, January 2006, http://tti.tamu.edu/documents/0-4984-1.pdf 
5. ^ 74 F.R. 66740

External links

• FHWA page about the Clearview typeface
• Official site