RAF post war gauge font

[nazca_steve]

Hello all,

bit of a longshot, given that gauge fonts seem to be so non-standard, but does anyone know if there was a particular font adhered to in gauge markings, or whether this varied with manufacturer?

Steve

[BLOWHARD]

Hey Steve, AFAIK there is no font even close, and from gauge to gauge, manufacturer to manufacturer, there are many variations. I'm pretty sure some of these were hand painted, and many gauges show raised think paint application.
I'm at work now but I'll look into it when I get home.
If you've read any of my other posts on instrumentation you'll know I'm a stickler for doing this stuff right, not relying of a pre-made computer font. I feel that these things lose their character and become down right generic if a computer font is used.
Anyway, I'll come up with more info for you later.

[nazca_steve]

Hello Blowhard,

let me just quickly say your work is amazing; I did actually read your vector path tutorial yesterday and was very impressed. I especially respect your comment on things taking time, but being the right way to do them. That kind of attention to detail sets your work apart from the rest. So, on that note, yes, in honesty I was looking for a 'quick fix' to gauge markings, but as you say, probably not going to happen.

I'm going to spend some time with your tutorial and some of the others on here, which are equally superb. SPS is a superb forum, tons of very high quality work going on here, and I have used the colour swatches on here countless times as a real live saver. I'm that obsessed with those swatches that I'm thinking of making a laminated large poster of the UK swatches and mounting it on my wall! Something about military colour swatches that I love.

Anyway, ATB for now,

Steve

[BLOWHARD]

Thanks for the good word

probably not going to happen

That depends You might be fine with using a font that's almost but not quite. There are plenty of published profile artists who do this, and a greater number of Sim texture artists who are happy with using a font that's close.
The real trick is finding good quality photos of all original gauges that you can see all the "fine print" and details on. Do you have a good set of reference photos for your gauges yet?

[nazca_steve]

Fortunately, yes, I have lots of high-res photos I took myself, so am fine in that respect. The font I found last night was a typewriter-style font which was close; with some kerning adjustments and fake bolding, I was able to get 'acceptably' close.

[BLOWHARD]

CRUD, I waited too late It will have to wait until the weekend.
One font I used as a base a lot is Arial Rounded M1. Also take a look at the DIN series, Engschrift, Mittelschrift and Schrift, they have nice numbers.
The part that I could never get over is how one font might be really close except for one or two letters that just aren't right.

(fake bold is your friend )

[Tex-Twil]

Hi,
I reopen this topic since I"m also looking for a fast solution for RAF fonts I see in the download section some raf fonts but they don't seem to work. When I import them (in OSX) I do see them in Photoshop but when I start typing with them, the font switches to something else.