Metro Fonts
Most subways use standard typefaces for their corporate identity, while others don't even care and have used a mixture of different fonts over the years. But some subway systems are stylish enough to communicate with their customers through exclusively designed typefaces for wayfinding signage and paperwork.
Page updated 6 May 2008.
| City | Font Name | Designer | Year | Sample | Availability | Reference |
|---|
| Amsterdam | M.O.L. | Gerard Unger | 1974 |  | | gerardunger.com | | Berlin | Transit (based on Frutiger) | Erik Spiekermann, Lucas de Groot, Henning Krause | 1991 |  | fontshop.com | typophile.com | | Brussels | Brusseline | Eric de Berranger | 2006 |  | | de-berranger.club.fr, de-berranger.club.fr (PDF) | | Hong Kong | Casey (based on Tahoma and Frutiger) | unknown designer | 1996 |  | i-circle.net (registration required) | wikipedia.org | | Lisbon | Metrolis | Michael Barbosa, Freda Sack, David Quay | 1995 |  | | identifont.com, typophile.com | | London | Johnston | Edward Johnston | 1916 |  | paratype.com, p22.com | TfL fonts, wikipedia.org | | Mexico City | Tipo Metro | Lance Wyman | 1969 |  | haroldsfonts.com (a rough lookalike) | Lance Wyman via email, hablamosjuntos.org | | Munich | Vialog | Werner Schneider, Helmut Ness | 2002 |  | linotype.com | typophile.com, typeforum.de | | New York | (tile fonts in several variations) | G. C. Heins, C. G. La Farge, S. J. Vickers | 1901 |  | myfonts.com, myfonts.com | Stookey, Lee: Subway Ceramics. 1992. | | Newcastle | Calvert | Margaret Calvert | 1980 |  | linotype.com, identifont.com | designmuseum.org, wikipedia.org | | Paris | Metropolitain (in six variations) | Hector Guimard | 1901 |  | myfonts.com, myfonts.com, dafont.com | Descouturelle, Frédéric; et. al.: Le métropolitain d'Hector Guimard. Somogy 2003. | | Paris | Alphabet Métro (based on Univers) | Adrian Frutiger | 1973 |  | | stbride.org | | Paris | Parisine | Jean François Porchez | 1996 |  | typofonderie.com, myfonts.com | stbride.org, creativepro.com, typofonderie.com | | Prague | Metron 1 | Jiri Rathousky | 1974 |  | | magtypo.cz, fonts-online.com | | Rotterdam | RET 2 | Henk van Leyden | 1984 |  | | Henk van Leyden via email | | Seoul | Korail/ | unknown designer | ca. 2003 |  | asiafont.com | typophile.com | | Singapore | LTA Identity Typeface | Hubert Jocham | 198? |  | | Hubert Jocham via email; LTAFont.PDF | | Toronto | Toronto Subway | unknown designer | 1954 |  | quadrat.com, fontpool.com | poslfit.com, flickr.com, joeclark.org |
1 Metron in Prague was replaced by Helvetica in 1985. Remains only in metal lettering of station names.
2 RET in Rotterdam has been officially replaced by a standard font after a few years when a signage upgrade required a digitized font. Signs using RET remained only in a few places.
Reference
Berry, John D.: Underground Typography. 23 March 2001: creativepro.com.
Clark, Joe: Inscribed in the Living Tile: Type in the Toronto Subway. Presented at the ATypI 2007 conference.
Cleary, Ed; Jürgen Siebert; Erik Spiekermann: Font Book. Digital Typeface Compendium. Volume 1+2. FontShop International 1995.
Designerstalk.com discussion about subway fonts.
Eason, Ron; Sarah Rookledge: Rookledge's International Handbook of Type Designers. Sarema Press 1991.
Subway fonts. myfonts.com.
Typophile.com discussion about subway fonts.
WhatTheFont. myfonts.com. Font indentifier and forum.
This page: http://mic-ro.com/metro/metrofonts.html
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