The Santa Fe "Quality" logo got to looking too much like Quaker Oats corporate logo. Logo withdrawn, but not before it got loose in the car shops. Gotta smile every time one appears on the upper corner of a covered hopper or boxcar, albeit faded.
And then there was the "No Wimps" safety campaign.
mudchicken Just about any railroads standard plan book has a sheet that specifically addresses that railroad's own font, logo, lettering and style. How rigid those standards are becomes a function of how OCD corporate leadership and their marketing bubbas are in "protecting the brand".
Just about any railroads standard plan book has a sheet that specifically addresses that railroad's own font, logo, lettering and style. How rigid those standards are becomes a function of how OCD corporate leadership and their marketing bubbas are in "protecting the brand".
...and lawyers telling them what to do to keep the corporate image from leaking out into the public domain.
Two quickies. The Q in the Conrail Quality logo does not match that in the corporate "alphabet". Lots and lots of handwringing and lawyers etc, before they decided it was okay to use.
The first NS DC to AC conversion (blue hedgehog) had a blue horse logo from the paint shop. The corporate folk went into a tizzy. The horse can only be black or white. Photos withdrawn. Loco back into the paint shop. I have a clandestine copy around here somewhere.
-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/)
Just for the heck of it, I stumbled upon the following, and remembered this thread:
An official Amtrak Livery and Logo guide. (note: will auto download a PDF to your computer)
And a place called "WhatFontIs", claiming to have a collection of over 600,000 fonts, which if you upload a graphic of the font you are trying to match, they will offer a few of the closest matches for you to choose from.
https://www.whatfontis.com/
NittanyLionBefore she ever met me, she wanted to have her wedding at the Georgia State Railroad Museum, which is a pretty popular venue in Savannah. I made an offhand comment that we could refer to table 1, table 2, etc. as track 1, track 2, etc. and it sort of went from there.
Methinks You got a good lady.
CSSHEGEWISCH NittanyLion A couple of years ago for my railroad themed wedding And she was OK with that??
NittanyLion A couple of years ago for my railroad themed wedding
A couple of years ago for my railroad themed wedding
And she was OK with that??
Before she ever met me, she wanted to have her wedding at the Georgia State Railroad Museum, which is a pretty popular venue in Savannah. I made an offhand comment that we could refer to table 1, table 2, etc. as track 1, track 2, etc. and it sort of went from there.
Deggesty I have no idea, but I do know that it is not Dingbats. Who would use such a font?
I have no idea, but I do know that it is not Dingbats. Who would use such a font?
I have an entire cabinet in my letterpress print shop full of dashes, typecuts, and yes, dingbats.
I use some of the characters in the dingbat fonts for things like checkboxes when I'm creating forms.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
A couple of years ago for my railroad themed wedding, I needed vector artwork for about 30 "classic" railroad heralds. With exactly three exceptions, I had to redraw them in Illustrator (UP and KCS had vector files on their websites and the B&O historical society had the Capitol Dome). They all contained letters or words.
Virtually all of those letters had to be hand drawn. Even ones that superficially resembled known or common typefaces had some sort of porportional difference that could not be recreated unless the individual letters were reconstructed and positioned manually.
It's true. I have been known to take requests.
VGN Jess I didn't see Atlantic Coast Line or Seaboard Air Line? Did I miss it?
No, although I dimly remember use of the Eurostile Bold Extended for one of them in passenger.
He revised the site extensively in late 2016, and it is possible that he would produce appropriate faces/fonts for either or both upon request.
[/quote]
VGN JessI didn't see Atlantic Coast Line or Seaboard Air Line? Did I miss it?
I didn't see Atlantic Coast Line or Seaboard Airline? Did I miss it?
http://www.railsimstuff.com/
this has a lot of fonts in it
Overmod This used to be a traditional sore point, back in the Alan Cooper Macintosh days. Produced the same sort of effect as calling a Spartacist a "Trotskyite" -- NO, IT'S "TROTSKYIST,IST,IST" <stamps feet, turns red, then holds breath and turns blue, etc.> RME
This used to be a traditional sore point, back in the Alan Cooper Macintosh days. Produced the same sort of effect as calling a Spartacist a "Trotskyite" -- NO, IT'S "TROTSKYIST,IST,IST" <stamps feet, turns red, then holds breath and turns blue, etc.>
RME
Overmod, I understand what you mean. Alcoholic... Workaholic. No... Workic.
Larry,
I'm sure you know Courier is the font traditionally used on typewriters. I find it is easy to read. I assume it is a standard font. Here I make it bold because that looks to me more like a manual typewriter would look.
John
Nah... Logo Designers do not use fonts, they design a logo from scratch. There are just far to many things that need to be just right. Once they have a logo, they may then specify the fonts that they want to use with their equipment (Numbers, Letters etc) and on all of their corporate image.
LION was given the Independent font used by NYCT on the R-1s to R-38s and used by the IND on their original station signs. At least I can make new numbers for my subway cars.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
John WR I used new courier which is the closest I could get on my Mac.
I used new courier which is the closest I could get on my Mac.
It's not too far off, actually.
That said, sometimes the differences between typefaces are subtle. I've got various catalogs of typefaces, and sometimes you just have to take their word for it that there's a difference between Times Roman 1 and Times Roman 2, or whatever.
I often use Garamond for my fire department stuff. When I used to print tickets for the department (we don't sell many anymore) I used a typeface I'd acquired called "Garamond Italic." The catch was that I'd picked up an auxiliarly font of "swash" characters that I used, and I haven't found them on-line.
One problem with using non-standard fonts on the computer (and you can get hundreds of them) is if you want to take a document to a copy center for printing. If they don't have the font, it won't come out the way you wanted it.
Perhaps we should change it to A Choo Choo.
Isn't ACELA a nasal decongestant ?
Just as a nitpick: the way that the letters and numbers are styled and configured is the TYPEFACE.
The 'font' is the collection of all the characters with a particular style and configuration.
I usually refrain from grammar fascism (I can't very well be a 'grammar Nazi' when italicized type would have to be Fascist, could I?) but in this particular case I consider the distinction to be meaningful enough to mention it.
BTW: Usually the letterforms used in logos have been derived from some existing (probablly electronic) typeface source. The best thing to do is CONTACT the organization in question, and ask what firm did the logo design. Then ask that firm how they developed the letterforms, why they altered them, etc.
When I design logos, I do quite a bit of tweaking to existing letterforms, and to their leading and kerning, to get 'just the right effect'. Do not forget the typeSETTING aspect of this material, in addition to the letterforms...
Don't get type fonts and logo's mixed up...a type font is the way a letter or members of a set of letters are styled or configured. A logo can be a combination of letters and figures and shapes which specifically identifies an entity such as company, orginazation, etc.
RIDEWITHMEHENRY is the name for our almost monthly day of riding trains and transit in either the NYCity or Philadelphia areas including all commuter lines, Amtrak, subways, light rail and trolleys, bus and ferries when warranted. No fees, just let us know you want to join the ride and pay your fares. Ask to be on our email list or find us on FB as RIDEWITHMEHENRY (all caps) to get descriptions of each outing.
NH's letters look rather like "Stymie Bold," which I happen to have in actual type in a couple of sizes.
NYC's font is called "Grand Central" and is available on-line, for a small fee, which I did pay. I use it a lot when preparing handouts for our railroad, which runs on a former NYC line.
There are literally thousands of type styles, the differences between many of which can be told only by an experienced eye.
As for original fonts (like Grand Central), sometimes the font itself isn't original (or is real close to an existing font), but the arrangement make it so, as already noted. Adding a flourish, outlining, or some other feature changes a routine type style into something that uniquely identifies it's user.
The logo of one tech company was rumored to be either the grease stain from a donut or the rings from a coffee cup...
As for the dingbats - I use a few of them fairly often, especially the pointing "fists." As long as you don't get too cute, the various characters can provide a way to make "bullet lists" unique in a report.
N
H
That is the closest I can get to the New Haven's logo.
Acela026 So basically most roads have their logos and lettering specially designed and probably won't be availible as a font. That's what I'm hearing. Acela
So basically most roads have their logos and lettering specially designed and probably won't be availible as a font. That's what I'm hearing.
Acela
No. With so many fonts available today it is unlikely that there is a font exclusive to one or any railroad. If so, it would be trademarked or copyright and not be on anyone's keyboard or hard drive anyway; I don't off hand know of any secured font. Logos, arrangements of letters, phrases, names, terms, figures, artwork, etc, are often TM or Copyright protected however.. And most often it is the one who uses it first and can prove it, owns it. Sometimes it is so because no one else would want to copy or there is no sense in copying....
No problem though! (English class requires us to use Times New Roman anyway, blech! )
The timbers beneath the rails are not the only ties that bind on the railroad. --Robert S. McGonigal
Firelock76 Well ketchup may not be a vegetable ... Sorry for the off-topic rant, I'll go quietly...
Well ketchup may not be a vegetable ... Sorry for the off-topic rant, I'll go quietly...
[quote user=Foghorn Leghorn} It was a joke, son.
Many years ago now, in the Reagan Administration, there was a kerfuffle about school lunch programs, in which one of the cheap-ass 'arguments' was that ketchup 'counted' as a vegetable in nutrition assessments. This was gleefully seized upon by the press as an example of Stockmania or whatever.
It's not so much that it's 'wrong' as that the semantics are. Ketchup is a condiment. Tomato sauce is ... well, much more a component of what it's applied to.
Now you've got me hungry for lasagna, and I have no way to get it. Curses!!!
Well ketchup may not be a vegetable but tomato sauce certainly is! That's what makes pizza a perfect food, it's got the vegetable group, the dairy group, and the grain group. Throw on some pepperoni and you'v e got the meat group as well!
Sorry for the off-topic rant, I'll go quietly...
Deggesty I have no idea, but I do know that it is not Dingbats. Who would use such a font
I have no idea, but I do know that it is not Dingbats. Who would use such a font
Well, anyone who wants access to special characters from a keyboard, for one.
(In the old days, when it was a real hot-metal 'font' instead of a typeface, how else would you have molds for all those characters? Cut'em with a dental tool? Use watchmaker's tools? ...)
Not all systems have the Alt-xxx switch for special characters, and not all typefaces have what you need in the high-bit characters. So some access to Dingbats (which is a technical term for this sort of thing in typography, btw) or Wingdings or whatever is still useful in many situations.
No more intended as a 'font' in itself than, say, Montreal Steak Seasoning would be as an entree. And surely you would not think ketchup is a vegetable... ;-}
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