Motorway Font Family by K-Type

About: Motorway is the tall condensed lettering that displays route numbers on British motorway signs, often seen alongside the Transport typeface. When Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert created Motorway they only included the numbers 0 to 9, the capitals A, B, E, M, N, S and W, ampersand, slash, parentheses and a comma. So, although the lettering first appeared in 1958, K-Type Motorway is the first complete typeface and contains all upper and lower case letters, plus numerals, punctuation, symbols and Latin Extended-A accented characters.

Kinneir and Calvert designed the limited range of characters in two weights; a SemiBold 'Permanent' weight for use as white letters on blue motorway signs, and a Bold 'Temporary' weight for heavier black letters on yellow non-permanent signage. In addition to creating full fonts in both original weights, the K-Type family adds a new Regular weight, plus a set of italics, completing a highly usable condensed typeface which, while rooted in history, is fully functional for both print and web usage. The K-Type fonts are spaced and kerned normally, simply increase the tracking to recapture the generous spacing of motorway signage.

All six fonts are included in the download.

Tags: 1960s, Condensed, Grotesque, Signage, british, sans-serif