Here's Your Sign...

[johnb]

My model of the Santa Monica freight station has been missing a major part of it for a few years, and I really think that I need to make this…

Such a simple thing is a headache, I have been searching for about a year for the correct font, does anyone know the name of it or has it?

[learmoia]

It sort of looks like NYC gothic.. but likely not exact..

If you want exact, what I have done in the past is to try to get a clear photo of the lettering and perspective crop it to make it square.

Then import it into Cad and Trace it out.. Them transfer it to a font creator to generate a font..

~Ian

[C855B]

... Such a simple thing is a headache, I have been searching for about a year for the correct font, does anyone know the name of it or has it?...

I see three, maybe four different fonts in those two pictures. Let's insert my usual micro-rant here about "old hand-painted signmaker fonts are/were totally nonstandard". That "square" font with low X-height (the funky 'P' and 'R') in the top of the top picture will be especially challenging.

That said, the "PACIFIC ELECTRIC" in the lower picture is similar to Futura Medium Condensed. The "FREIGHT STATION" is an extended something-sans-serif I can't put my finger on at the moment... but notice that "FREIGHT" and "STATION" are made to be the same length when they wouldn't normally be if they were "real" typographer fonts.

In so many words, it is easy to spend waste hours trying to match old signage to modern type libraries. In trying to be precise in some instances I have simply used Photoshop and/or Adobe Illustrator to stretch, squeeze, de-perspective or otherwise manipulate the best photograph I can find of the original sign and hope the scale reduction (and three-foot rule) works well enough. Suggest you look for better pics and try that.

[learmoia]

If you can get me a perspective adjusted copy of the sign image, I can put draw up a vector font version..

And which version of the sign do you want?

~Ian

[johnb]

And there lies the problem...

[nkalanaga]

"If you can get me a perspective adjusted copy of the sign image, I can put draw up a vector font version.. "

If you can get a good, square image, why go to the trouble of creating the font?  Just print a copy of the sign.

[C855B]

If you can get a good, square image, why go to the trouble of creating the font?  Just print a copy of the sign.

This. I guess that's what I was saying, get the best picture you can, use GIMP or Photoshop or whatever to undo the perspective distortion, then ...poof!... instant sign artwork. Every picture you've linked has a different "font". That's life with hand-painted signage. That example in color is an excellent example of somebody trying to reproduce or otherwise match old signage with modern tools, it's nothing close and does not capture the flavor.

[learmoia]

No matter how large of a picture you can get and how well you can crop it.. You'll loose crispness in the printing process.. Once scaled back down it just won't look right..

What I'm suggesting will come out crisp and clear..

Since I trace over the origional, you retain most of the imperfect
handpainted effect..

But it's just an option..

~Ian

[johnb]

This. I guess that's what I was saying, get the best picture you can, use GIMP or Photoshop or whatever to undo the perspective distortion, then ...poof!... instant sign artwork. Every picture you've linked has a different "font". That's life with hand-painted signage. That example in color is an excellent example of somebody trying to reproduce or otherwise match old signage with modern tools, it's nothing close and does not capture the flavor.

you got that right....here is the original version of the sign

[learmoia]

Here are some examples...

CNW Reefer from photos using various fonts to match lettering and a few hand drawn.
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Swift.. all hand drawn from photos and old signage.  Then converted to vector fonts and scaled to HO.
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[Chris333]

Just a quick rotate & crop:

[C855B]

No matter how large of a picture you can get and how well you can crop it.. You'll loose crispness in the printing process.. Once scaled back down it just won't look right. ...

That's not been my experience, but I'll accept that it takes an artist's/typographer's eye with the photo tools. Carefully adjusting brightness and contrast works wonders, and if the original photo is large enough, reduction will meet or exceed printer resolution.

Here's a few minutes with Photoshop. I didn't spend the time to completely despeckle the white background, but I certainly would use the printed results here. The image is already sized for N scale (it's 3 feet tall), so print and see if it works for you. Hint: don't print from your browser, it will want to fill the page. Save the image file and print from an image viewer.

[johnb]

Just a quick rotate & crop:

That's not been my experience, but I'll accept that it takes an artist's/typographer's eye with the photo tools. Carefully adjusting brightness and contrast works wonders, and if the original photo is large enough, reduction will meet or exceed printer resolution.

Here's a few minutes with Photoshop. I didn't spend the time to completely despeckle the white background, but I certainly would use the printed results here. The image is already sized for N scale (it's 3 feet tall), so print and see if it works for you. Hint: don't print from your browser, it will want to fill the page. Save the image file and print from an image viewer.

You guys do impressive work....all the years in hosting and servers,  I have learned very little about photoshop....but I can read server logs and edit a .comf file....

[Chris333]

I use a program called XnView. And it was just a rotate and crop. But you could also go into levels and turn up the black and white.

[learmoia]

Just a quick rotate & crop:

Is this from the color photo / modern reproduction?

It looks like it is.... which we agree looses the vintage multiple font / handpainted format?

~ian