Researchers produce more readable signs

STATE COLLEGE, Pa., Dec. 10 (UPI) -- Highway signs in a new typeface developed at Penn State University are going up across the United States.

Researchers spent a decade designing the Clearview Typeface System, which will replace the Highway Gothic or Standard Highway Sign Lettering in use for the past 50 years. The Federal Highway Administration has given interim approval to Clearview's use on signs.

Martin Pietrucha, a civil engineer at Penn State, said that the new typeface is 20 percent more legible because it uses upper- and lower-case letters with capital letters at the beginning. The typeface's spacing is designed to take advantage of the way drivers perceive signs at different distances.

The typeface also helps solve the problem of overglow or haloing, Pietrucha said. Overglow occurs when headlights hit a road sign directly, turning the letters into blobs of light. Pietrucha said that Clearview letters like b and o have larger spaces in the middle, so that light is less likely to wipe out the entire letter.