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Signal

Styles

ExtraLightBuy from €70ExtraLight ItalicBuy from €70LightBuy from €70Light ItalicBuy from €70RegularBuy from €70ItalicBuy from €70BoldBuy from €70Bold ItalicBuy from €70

Specimen

Highway Engineering Дорожное строительство
Rural Space
Over the years, change was gradual. Pre-industrial signs were stone or wood, but with the development of Darby’s method of smelting iron using coke-painted cast iron became favoured in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Cast iron continued to be used until the mid-20th century, but it was gradually displaced by aluminium or other materials and processes, such as vitreous enamelled and/or pressed malleable iron, or (later) steel.
Over the years, change was gradual. Pre-industrial signs were stone or wood, but with the development of Darby’s method of smelting iron using coke-painted cast iron became favoured in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Cast iron continued to be used until the mid-20th century, but it was gradually displaced by aluminium or other materials and processes, such as vitreous enamelled and/or pressed malleable iron, or (later) steel.
Over the years, change was gradual. Pre-industrial signs were stone or wood, but with the development of Darby’s method of smelting iron using coke-painted cast iron became favoured in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Cast iron continued to be used until the mid-20th century, but it was gradually displaced by aluminium or other materials and processes, such as vitreous enamelled and/or pressed malleable iron, or (later) steel.
Over the years, change was gradual. Pre-industrial signs were stone or wood, but with the development of Darby’s method of smelting iron using coke-painted cast iron became favoured in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Cast iron continued to be used until the mid-20th century, but it was gradually displaced by aluminium or other materials and processes, such as vitreous enamelled and/or pressed malleable iron, or (later) steel.
Over the years, change was gradual. Pre-industrial signs were stone or wood, but with the development of Darby’s method of smelting iron using coke-painted cast iron became favoured in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Cast iron continued to be used until the mid-20th century, but it was gradually displaced by aluminium or other materials and processes, such as vitreous enamelled and/or pressed malleable iron, or (later) steel.
Racewalking Land Zoning
As the focus of the sign, the route number is usually the sign’s largest element, with other items on the sign rendered in smaller sizes or contrasting colors.

Signal In Use

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Information

Design

Emmanuel Besse

Release Date

2019-06-11

Team

Julien Lelièvre
Hugues Gentile
Ilya Ruderman
Yury Ostromentsky
Marion Sendral
Céline Odermatt
Donald Choque

Version

1.004
Download PDF Specimen

About this font

Signal leans on a significant part of the French typographic landscape: Caractères, the typeface found on road signs throughout France. Although the genesis of these standardized alphabets (originally instated by the Ministry of Transport) remains obscure, they’ve officially dominated the French road network since 1946, and embody its typographic identity.

Until now, Caractères had existed only in its standardized form: four incomplete styles named L1, L2, L4 (an italic variant with both upper- and lowercase characters), and L5. The bootleg digital versions available were similarly incomplete and poorly executed.

Specifically developed with urban signage, interfaces, and exhibition design in mind, Production Type’s new Signal series completes and extends the pre-existing set of styles. The palette is an extrapolation of previously unexisting roman lowercases in four weights and their matching italics, a complete set of accents for multilingual typesetting, numerous arrows and pictograms, and characters for mathematical typesetting. An extra Compressed style, skewed and excessive, wittily rounds out the family. As a new ensemble, Signal boosts Caractères’ potential, making it particularly well-suited for interface design. 

An epitome of late-modernist thinking, Signal’s aesthetic is inextricably bound up with administrative design. The letters conform to the rigor that suffused most sans serifs of the second half of the twentieth century. Signal has a bespoke appearance and a distinctive typographic color (see especially the unconventional spacing of the italic cuts). Production Type has a long-standing relationship with signage typefaces, making them a focus of research from as early as 2003. This new Signal, revisited and harmonized, continues our reflexion and opens up new possibilities for dialogue.

Formats

Static (OTF, TTF, WOFF, WOFF2)

Language support

Abaza, Acheron, Achinese, Acholi, Adyghe, Afar, Afrikaans, Aghul, Alekano, Aleut, Amahuaca, Amarakaeri, Amis, Anaang, Andaandi, Dongolawi, Andi, Anuta, Ao Naga, Aragonese, Arbëreshë Albanian, Arvanitika Albanian, Asháninka, Ashéninka Perené, Asu (Tanzania), Atayal, Avaric, Balinese, Bari, Bashkir, Basque, Batak Dairi, Batak Karo, Batak Mandailing, Batak Simalungun, Batak Toba, Belarusian, Bemba (Zambia), Bena (Tanzania), Bikol, Bislama, Borana-Arsi-Guji Oromo, Bosnian, Breton, Budukh, Buginese, Candoshi-Shapra, Caquinte, Cashibo-Cacataibo, Catalan, Cebuano, Central Aymara, Central Kurdish, Chamalal, Chamorro, Chavacano, Chechen, Chiga, Chiltepec Chinantec, Chinese Buriat, Chokwe, Chuukese, Chuvash, Cimbrian, Cofán, Congo Swahili, Cook Islands Māori, Cornish, Corsican, Creek, Crimean Tatar, Crimean Tatar, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dargwa, Dehu, Dungan, Dutch, Eastern Arrernte, Eastern Oromo, Embu, English, Erzya, Ese Ejja, Faroese, Fijian, Filipino, Finnish, French, Friulian, Galician, Ganda, Ga’anda, German, Gheg Albanian, Gilbertese, Gooniyandi, Gourmanchéma, Guadeloupean Creole French, Gusii, Haitian, Halh Mongolian, Hani, Hiligaynon, Ho-Chunk, Hopi, Huastec, Hungarian, Icelandic, Iloko, Inari Sami, Indonesian, Ingush, Irish, Istro Romanian, Italian, Ixcatlán Mazatec, Jamaican Creole English, Japanese, Javanese, Jola-Fonyi, Judeo-Tat, K'iche', Kabardian, Kabuverdianu, Kala Lagaw Ya, Kalaallisut, Kalenjin, Kalmyk, Kamba (Kenya), Kaonde, Karachay-Balkar, Karelian, Kashubian, Kazakh, Kekchí, Kenzi, Mattokki, Khasi, Kikuyu, Kimbundu, Kinyarwanda, Kirghiz, Kituba (DRC), Komi-Permyak, Komi-Zyrian, Kongo, Konzo, Kuanyama, Kumyk, Kven Finnish, Kölsch, Ladin, Ladino, Lak, Latgalian, Lezghian, Ligurian, Lithuanian, Lombard, Low German, Lower Sorbian, Luba-Lulua, Lule Sami, Luo (Kenya and Tanzania), Luxembourgish, Macedo-Romanian, Macedonian, Makhuwa, Makhuwa-Meetto, Makonde, Makwe, Malagasy, Malaysian, Maltese, Mandinka, Manx, Maore Comorian, Maori, Mapudungun, Matsés, Mauritian Creole, Meriam Mir, Meru, Minangkabau, Mirandese, Mohawk, Moksha, Mongolian Buriat, Montenegrin, Munsee, Murrinh-Patha, Muslim Tat, Mwani, Mískito, Naga Pidgin, Ndonga, Neapolitan, Ngazidja Comorian, Niuean, Nobiin, Nogai, Nomatsiguenga, North Ndebele, Northern Kurdish, Northern Qiandong Miao, Northern Sami, Northern Uzbek, Norwegian, Nyanja, Nyankole, Occitan, Orma, Oroqen, Palauan, Paluan, Pampanga, Papiamento, Pedi, Picard, Pichis Ashéninka, Piemontese, Pijin, Pintupi-Luritja, Pohnpeian, Polish, Portuguese, Potawatomi, Quechua, Romanian, Romansh, Rotokas, Rundi, Russian, Russian Buriat, Rusyn, Rutul, Rwa, Samburu, Samoan, Sango, Sangu (Tanzania), Saramaccan, Sardinian, Scottish Gaelic, Sena, Seri, Seselwa Creole French, Shambala, Shawnee, Shipibo-Conibo, Shona, Sicilian, Silesian, Slovak, Slovenian, Soga, Somali, Soninke, South Ndebele, Southern Aymara, Southern Qiandong Miao, Southern Sami, Southern Sotho, Spanish, Sranan Tongo, Standard Estonian, Standard Latvian, Standard Malay, Sundanese, Swahili, Swati, Swedish, Swiss German, Tabassaran, Tagalog, Tahitian, Taita, Tajik, Tatar, Tedim Chin, Tetum, Tetun Dili, Tiv, Tok Pisin, Tokelau, Tonga (Tonga Islands), Tosk Albanian, Tsakhur, Tsonga, Tswana, Tumbuka, Turkish, Turkmen, Tuvinian, Tzeltal, Tzotzil, Uab Meto, Udi, Ukrainian, Ume Sami, Upper Guinea Crioulo, Upper Sorbian, Venetian, Veps, Võro, Walloon, Walser, Wangaaybuwan-Ngiyambaa, Waray (Philippines), Warlpiri, Wayuu, Welsh, West Central Oromo, Western Abnaki, Western Frisian, Wik-Mungkan, Wiradjuri, Wolof, Xhosa, Yanesha', Yao, Yapese, Yindjibarndi, Yucateco, Zulu, Záparo

About the designers

  • Emmanuel Besse

    Designer

    Emmanuel Besse is an art director and a type designer with a focus to open-ended and inclusive approach to communication.
    View full profile

Glyphs

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OpenType Features

Production Type ships OpenType fonts with built-in features such as ligatures, alternates, or pictograms. Here are some of the most important features. To view a comprehensive list of features, please refer to the PDF specimen.

Case-Sensitive Forms

[CASE-SENSITIVE] !¡?¿-–—()[]{}‹›«»· ­

off

Standard Ligatures

fichier flicker affliger ­

off

Slashed Zero

0123456789 ­

off

Proportional Figures

H0123456789 ­

off

Tabular Figures

H0123456789 ­

off

Superscript

H012345679 ­

off

Scientific Inferiors

H012345679 ­

off

Numerators

H012345679 ­

off

Denominators

H012345679 ­

off

Fractions

1/4 1/2 3/4 ­

off

Ordinals

2a 2o NO No Nº N° nO no nº n° ­

off

Ornaments

+ − ± × ÷ = < > ­

off

Stylistic Set 1

012345678910 ­

off

Stylistic Set 2

012345678910 ­

off

Stylistic Set 3

<>+−×÷=± ­

off

Stylistic Set 4

abcdef ­

off

Stylistic Set 5

ДЛЖКвгджзийклптцчшщъью ­

off

Stylistic Set 6

б ­

off

Pair well with Signal

  • Signal Bold

    New generations of traffic signs are based on electronic displays.

    Kessler Text Regular

    There are install more than 4,000 signs in one stretch between Los Angeles and Kansas City alone

  • Signal Light

    New generations of traffic signs are based on electronic displays.

    Sainte Colombe Bold

    There are install more than 4,000 signs in one stretch between Los Angeles and Kansas City alone

  • Signal Regular

    New generations of traffic signs are based on electronic displays.

    Tesseract Italic

    There are install more than 4,000 signs in one stretch between Los Angeles and Kansas City alone

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Discover the Signal family

  • Signal Mono

    8 styles: ExtraLight, ExtraLight Italic, Light, Light Italic, Regular, Italic, Bold, Bold Italic

  • Signal Compressed

    1 style: Regular

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    Useful type with an edge.

    Useful type with an edge.

    Production Type provide retail as well as dedicated creative services in typeface design for brands.

    Based in Paris and Shanghai, Production Type is a digital type design agency. Its activities span from the exclusive online distribution of its retail type for design professionals, to the creation of custom typefaces for the industrial, luxury, and media sectors.
    Enquire about custom fonts