no.3 i would say trajan
no.4 is interstate

Thanks ...any idea where i can get these typefaces or view them?

For Trajan:
http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/linotype/trajan/

For Interstate:
http://www.fontbureau.com/fonts/Interstate

Note that #4 is probably one of the common highway signage fonts used by U.S. cities and states. Interstate is a commercial font based on those designs.

Interstate (and Highway Gothic) have smaller middle strokes on the E than the sample above.

I don't see how anybody could possibly identify your first sample, really.

For #1, though totally an approximation, Univers comes to mind.

if you dont need an exact match for #2 i would recommend
tankard's bliss, johnston's underground or gill.

http://www.identifont.com/show?4JN
http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/p22/underground/p22-underground/testdrive.html?s=LITTER&p=48
http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/linotype/gill-sans/gill-sans/testdrive.html?s=LITTER&p=48

It's a bit ridiculous to talk about 'fonts' when you are looking at some sort of metal castings. The point is that not EVERYTHING is from a computer font. There was lettering for hundreds of years without digital fonts, and obviously every form of lettering has not been digitized. So much lettering was done by hand, and will never be re-created.

Chris, it would be nice if you would give us a break, and post one image at a time per thread, and try to consider whether asking about a 'font' for manufactured lettering is a reasonable request.

Can I ask what your reason is for these shotgun style ID requests?

Well first I would like to say thanks for everyone

Whatever happened to looking through books of typeface samples, hour after hour? You'd learn a lot more about type and lettering that way.
Asking a forum on the web is faster, true, but the time you save is the difference between real knowledge and trivia.

I have been looking through typeface sample books and have identified around 30 typefaces using this method. The reason for the use of the forum is that there is a greater wealth of knowledge than a few books can provide.

People bring their own experiences, influences etc in the identification of a specific typeface which then leads me back to typeface specimen books. I am not loosing out on using a forum I am infact learning more.

"I never assumed that the metal cast typographical form was of the digital kind but assumed someone might have had an idea what it could have been based on and therefore I don

I just checked and you had only three images in your last post. Someboday named Nathan gave us 10 at once.

So my apologies are deeper than before, but not real deep.

Everyone else thanks for your help!

Yves - There are a few issues that seem to come up repeatedly - ie multiple IDs in one request, requests without samples linked or attached, requests for freebies, attachments in the wrong format, and (this one really bugs me) threads titled "Please help!" or "Can you ID this font?" instead of referring to the content. I'm sure there are other issues I'm forgetting. My point is, is there a way in the site header to try to make these points in a slightly more emphatic way - or at least to direct newbies to the FAQ before they go ahead and post?

Its got to be said that if you have a forum entitled TYPE IDENTIFICATION BOARD then it is inevitable that users will title there threads "Please help!" or "Can you ID this font?"... Its the nature of the board and what it is there for. Also in most cases this kind of thread header is referring to the content within...what else would u say?

If u don

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quote:

Its got to be said that if you have a forum entitled TYPE IDENTIFICATION BOARD then it is inevitable that users will title there threads "Please help!" or "Can you ID this font?"... Its the nature of the board and what it is there for

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Did you read the FAQ? If everyone labeled their thread "Please help" there would be total chaos. The forum would be as readable as a newspaper in which every headline says "Stuff happened!" in big bold letters.

ha

Yeh imagine... total chaos...no one would no what to do...

C ya!

Hi Chris, sorry about the tenseness of some replies. We've
experienced an exponential growth since 2003, and since
the MyFonts forums closed down a couple of months ago
traffic increased even more. Add to this the Board software
which behaves erratically and which ate two year's worth of
archives we used to rely on as reference material plus recent
postings with multiple IDs per thread... it tends to get a bit much.

Also, your identification request might annoyed some of us
as obviously it's quite unrealistic to expect them to be matched
with typefaces. Lettering on metal pipes, stone engraving,
traffic signs and so on all use custom made character sets
that are specifically produced for the medium they're intended
for. The medium and technical restrictions determine the shapes,
so it's very hard to come up with equivalents in type.

I'm not saying this to justify some of the above (over)reactions;
I only want to put them into context.

This being said, regarding your samples:

1. is very hard to match due to the heavy corrosion of the
charactershapes; in fact any Grotesque might do, so Ryan's
Univers Condensed is just as good a suggestion as Helvetica
Condensed or Trade Gothic Bold.

2. is obviously "hand drawn" as the R shape is quite clumsy.
In order to approximate these characters any of Romesh's
proposals will do: Bliss, Gill Sans or Underground.

3. looks very much like Romesh's suggestion Trajan indeed.

I don't agree about 4. tho, which to me looks more like Berthold's
Akzidenz-Grotesk Bold.

OK people, I've sent private e-mails to both Chris and Mike as the
situation threatened got out of hand. Let's get one thing straight.
You already might've noticed that I'm taking a more pro-active
stance in policing this Board. This means I will not tolerate childish
nor rude behaviour, but also that I expect everyone to be courteous,
even when dealing with what some of us might perceive as
unrealistic ID requests. Nobody forces anyone to contribute, so
if you feel the conversation is about to turn sour, I'd rather you
simply abstain from posting, unless it's really waranted.

In this particular instance I feel Mike and maybe Christopher as
well overreacted a bit, as nothing in the original post seemed
abusive to me. I can understand their reaction, but I don't agree.

As for Chris, you're getting a second chance, don't expect to get
a third.

Case closed.

Well, some things are mentioned in the header and I did put up
a FAQ file which no one seems to be reading, but your suggestion
is a good one and I'll look into updating all of this and making it
more obvious. Also, I can confer with Joe'n'Jared to see what's
possible with the new Board software.

Yaknow, stuff like mild electrical shocks when inputting a generic
topic title, mass porn spamming if the attachments aren't the right
file type and the likes... We'll try to come up with something juicy.

The newspaper analogy is indeed correct and hilarious to boot!

Chris, Franz is right, and your argumentation is totally front to back.
On a forum entitled Type Identification Board, identifying type and
helping people is ALL WE DO, so naming the threads "Please help!"
or "Can you ID this font?" seems pretty superfluous, don't you think?

Furthermore, please keep in mind that we already helped you
several times. Nobody's getting paid for this, and -- apart from the
little slips, granted -- everybody's been very forthcoming, so chill...
We might bitch and moan, but you had your faces identified, innit?

Well, it's obvious you're not the one who has to keep track of an
average of ten new threads a day... Did you really think constantly
opening them all to check which is which is our favourite passtime?
I mean, you just visit here.