The kerning on “NATIONAL PARK” feels quite loose, even given the context (normally wouldn’t comment this on HN, but given that this is expressly a typography related website...)
Looks fine in the demonstration area for the various weights below. There has to be some space between the lines if you were to use a router to make a wooden sign with these (the stated design inspiration).
Depending on the wooden sign material,
and the desired life expectancy of the sign,
close kerning might leave a narrow bit of
word that could warp and chip away after
a few years of exposure to the elements.
In case your brain is thinking "wait; I thought it'd be that cool scripty typeface on the oddly-angled signage?", you might be thinking of the USDA's logotype for National Forests. Unfortunately, there isn't an available font for that exact face. Some cool specs, though, in the Forest Service's design guide: https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprd381002...
Section 1-18 (page 24) of the linked PDF has examples of the "National Forest", "National Monument", etc. logotype; Chapter 8 has some more signage specs.
Those are the exact fonts I'm looking for, for an in-lay woodworking project I'm finishing. Any ideas at all what the fonts listed on 1-18 would be called?
I simply found the PDF fascinating for the rules of usage for the various signage applied to roads. Both for how when individual signs may be used and when signs are required based on road layout.
Tangentially related: there are quite a lot of good quality free software fonts out there. Some — like this typeface — are suited for display purposes, signage, and lettering. Others offer a full family of weights for typesetting body text.
I have my own shortlist of long-time favourites. To name but a few: Gentium Book Basic is a delight to read in print; Titillium adds a nice touch to technical drawings; Hack traces its monospaced code font lineage back to Bitstream Vera (through DejaVu Sans Mono), which back then kicked off a whole new period of free software desktop look-and-feel.
But I've never really found a site that collects these free software licensed fonts with curated reviews and use-cases. Sites like FontSquirrel offer a rough index, but contain no easy way to filter on more complex queries, and don't really show each typeface's strengths and weaknesses.
But I've never really found a site that collects these free software licensed fonts with curated reviews and use-cases.
There's not much out there, I'm afraid. It looks like you're already aware of the sites that just list a million fonts and maybe let you try out rendering some sample text interactively. You might find sites like Typewolf[1] and Fonts In Use[2] interesting if you haven't come across them before. There's a little more curation and organisation there than on something like Google Fonts. But really, for free fonts, there's not a lot of detailed commentary in my experience. If you have specific questions or want advice about suitable fonts for a specific project, you could also ask on the Typography subreddit[3], which is fairly active and has a few people who know what they're doing around.
Having recently road tripped across the country for a move to SF, I found myself admiring the design of national park signage. It feels very timeless and iconic.
That's national forest signage, not national park signage. National forests are managed by the U.S. Forest Service and national parks are managed by the National Park Service and they have different uses/purposes.
I can't reproduce this at any window size on Firefox, Chrome or Edge on Windows 10. I can hardly fault a typeface designer for not being an expert web developer who can build a consistent user experience on every conceivable browser configuration.
To reflect the snark right back: If you think Safari warrants primary support, ask Apple to provide ways to test in Safari without paying Apple for the privilege.
Microsoft got this one right when they released free Windows VMs for various combinations of Windows and IE versions.
Now, yes, it's fairly likely OP is already using macOS and they just didn't bother testing Safari, but if you want to be snarky about browser testing, be snarky to Apple first. They're intentionally making it difficult to test in Safari.
Reproducible in Chrome. I have a portrait monitor set up, and it was where I default landed. That said, I think it's one of a very select set of perimeters that breaks it.
Now the "Download" at the top, he's got some explaining to do...
(Agree with your point about expert web dev. Someone who designs fonts =/ someone who designs websites. Totally different skills. Some people might do both, but assuming that would be rather bold)
I also agree, in that I don't expect a font designer to be a web dev. But I do expect a font designer to care about design, and this seems like a pretty egregious error for someone who cares about design.
Reproducible in Firefox 67 on macOS as well. "DOWNLOAD" is only in one line for very wide windows, and for my default half-screen-wide window size (960 px), the main body title renders as
Exactly. I had a Leroy lettering set given to me at some point. I know they were eye-wateringly expensive to buy but is a very cool thing. Super high quality manufacturing.
Looking at it I feel that I could make something like it, even though I haven't done it before, simply by putting in the required time. (This is not some idle thought; I definitely do not feel that way about any other font I've seen in the last 20 years.)
It has nothing but straight lines and rudimentary curve segments and arcs, using a fixed stroke width with rounded ends.
There seems to be no attention to kerning, so chances are I wouldn't have to learn anything about that topic to make a font like this.
The kind of variation seen here among the multiple styles and weights looks like something that can be cranked out by varying some generic global parameters.
love this free font, also an honorable mention to Optician Sans: https://optician-sans.com/ which is a free font based on the classic eye test letter cards from opticians offices.
this is likely part of a US Federal program to bring "innovative business ideas" to the National Parks system under former Sec. Ryan Zinke .. which is nice-speak for privitization. You nerds get to look at the typeface, dont worry about development leases, collecting rent or mineral rights.. thats not your affair..
92 comments
[ 3.7 ms ] story [ 181 ms ] threadhttps://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=10/40.3428/-105.6836
"National Park Service Typefaces" https://www.nps.gov/subjects/hfc/nps-typefaces.htm
This is basically the Roman Simplex font used in CAD packages, and included in the Hershey fonts.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hershey_fonts
Hershey and CAD fonts are stroke-based, so line weight and endcap style influence the appearance.
Here's a JSONized version as part of the textlines tool: https://github.com/wildsparx/textlines/blob/master/fonts.jso...
Of course CAD fonts can be used at different aspect ratios - Roman Simplex is often used at 0.85 and that may be what National Park captures.
Section 1-18 (page 24) of the linked PDF has examples of the "National Forest", "National Monument", etc. logotype; Chapter 8 has some more signage specs.
There are a few more cousins of these from the HP Lovecraft Historical Society at https://store.hplhs.org/products/hplhs-fonts
I have my own shortlist of long-time favourites. To name but a few: Gentium Book Basic is a delight to read in print; Titillium adds a nice touch to technical drawings; Hack traces its monospaced code font lineage back to Bitstream Vera (through DejaVu Sans Mono), which back then kicked off a whole new period of free software desktop look-and-feel.
But I've never really found a site that collects these free software licensed fonts with curated reviews and use-cases. Sites like FontSquirrel offer a rough index, but contain no easy way to filter on more complex queries, and don't really show each typeface's strengths and weaknesses.
Does such a site or community exist?
There's not much out there, I'm afraid. It looks like you're already aware of the sites that just list a million fonts and maybe let you try out rendering some sample text interactively. You might find sites like Typewolf[1] and Fonts In Use[2] interesting if you haven't come across them before. There's a little more curation and organisation there than on something like Google Fonts. But really, for free fonts, there's not a lot of detailed commentary in my experience. If you have specific questions or want advice about suitable fonts for a specific project, you could also ask on the Typography subreddit[3], which is fairly active and has a few people who know what they're doing around.
[1] https://www.typewolf.com/
[2] https://fontsinuse.com/
[3] https://www.reddit.com/r/typography/
https://quickfont.xyz/
It doesn't have many fonts at the moment but feel free to open an issue with any font requests and I will add it to the site: https://github.com/kiwicopple/quick-font/issues
There are also some more opinionated FOSS font forges like https://www.theleagueofmoveabletype.com/ and (slightly bizarre) https://www.velvetyne.fr/
https://praegnanz.de/weblog/freie-schriften-im-mini-portrait
https://praegnanz.de/weblog/schriften-im-mini-portrait-ii
And many in-depth discussions like https://praegnanz.de/weblog/gentium or https://praegnanz.de/weblog/cardo
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/13/76/e2/1376e2e5690719701689...
https://www.doi.gov/blog/americas-public-lands-explained
Microsoft got this one right when they released free Windows VMs for various combinations of Windows and IE versions.
Now, yes, it's fairly likely OP is already using macOS and they just didn't bother testing Safari, but if you want to be snarky about browser testing, be snarky to Apple first. They're intentionally making it difficult to test in Safari.
Now the "Download" at the top, he's got some explaining to do...
(Agree with your point about expert web dev. Someone who designs fonts =/ someone who designs websites. Totally different skills. Some people might do both, but assuming that would be rather bold)
NATIONA
L
PARK
That's trivial though; you use a path with a circular pen, a most rudimentary thing in 2D graphics.
(Even then, you’d still need to have the stroke data, which seems like the hard part?)
Looking at it I feel that I could make something like it, even though I haven't done it before, simply by putting in the required time. (This is not some idle thought; I definitely do not feel that way about any other font I've seen in the last 20 years.)
It has nothing but straight lines and rudimentary curve segments and arcs, using a fixed stroke width with rounded ends.
There seems to be no attention to kerning, so chances are I wouldn't have to learn anything about that topic to make a font like this.
The kind of variation seen here among the multiple styles and weights looks like something that can be cranked out by varying some generic global parameters.
An excellent choice. Wish other firms would follow the same policy when building on public sector work.
https://www.nps.gov/subjects/partnerships/arrowhead-requests...