Vintage Circuit-Diagram Lettering!

[Chris55000]

Hi!

I realise I've mentioned this before, but has anyone ever attempted to turn the lettering-styles used by the UK radio/television/electronics construction magazines into a PC font that could be used on circuit/EDA/PCB packages?

I know there were four basic styles, and all appear to have been made using UNO Sencils made by A West and Partners!

The four styles used were:-

1) Upright Block capitals/lower case letters and a '3' with a round top and a '7' with a straight angled downward stroke - this was used in Radio Constructor's diagrams from the mid '50s right up to the magazine's closure in August 1981, and also in "Short Wave Magazine" throughout the '60s;

2) Upright Condensed Capitals/lower-case letters with a flat-topped '3' and a '7' with a slightly curved downward stroke - this was used by "Wireless World" on it's diagrams from about 1945 till about mid 1968.

Quite a number of Manufacturers used this style throughout their service manuals, Bush for instance during the 1960s.

3) Sloping block capitals/lower-case lettering with a flat-topped '3' and a '7' with a straight downward stroke - this was used by Practical Wireless and Practical Television from 1950 till about mid 1961.

Altho' this sloping style seemed to go out of fashion when PW/PT stopped using it it was still in use by Thorn/BRC for use as test-points/voltage readings/PCB connection points in their manuals until the dreadful ISO lettering came in from the early-to-mid 80s!

4) Square block capitals/lower-case letters with a 'primary-school' straight lower-case 't', a flat-topped '3' and a straight '7' and a figure '9' that looked a bit between the curly '9' used on typefaces and the straight 'primary-school' figure '9' - this lettering was used in Reddifusion/Doric's Service Manuals throughout their period of exsistence - even the Sharp-designed Mk. 5 Colour Portable CTV had a manual published in Doric's house-style!

If you look at (for example) a Thorn/BRC 1970s/early 1980s Audio manual you find examples of all of the first three lettering styles all used together on the same circuit diagram!

I've tried to reproduce these lettering forms myself but my hand isn't steady enough!

(I have a deadly hatred of ISO/Continental-style lettering styles and in my opinion, as well as preserving the technology, we should also preserve the styles of drawing in use then to reproduce on this forum for illustrative purposes!)

Opinions & Comments?

Chris Williams

[paulsherwin]

These will have been standard fonts. You just need to find out what they were, and then find a similar one and install it on your computer.

Here's a nice 40s style sans serif font to start with: http://www.dafont.com/keep-calm.font

Gill Sans was widely used, but it is a commercial font and you have to pay to use it. Free clones are available. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gill_Sans

[Chris55000]

Hi!

I've seen nothing remotely resembling these letter-forms on any of the free font sites - Gill Sans comes with some versions of Microsoft Office, Microgramma used by Elektor on it's earlier PCBs up to the mid-80s or so is fairly easy to obtain in both free and commercial variants, but the letter-forms on the circuit-diagrams are unique, the only place you'd find them printed are on A West's Stencil catalogues and the magazines I mentioned in my first post!

I think the letter-forms used "across the pond" in, (for example!) "Radio-Electronics" magazine (American Radio History Website!) are also totally unique as well!

Chris Williams

[Dai Corner]

There are websites which attempt to identify the fonts used in images you upload, such as https://www.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/

There are lots more but this was the first that came up whe I Googled font finder

[Terry_VK5TM]

Searching for 'old style engineering fonts' will bring a few that are close.

Alternatively you could make your own.

Here is a site with software to make your own:

https://fontforge.github.io/en-US/

I haven't tried it, so don't know how much effort is involved, but it is free.

Terry VK5TM

[mole42uk]

When I was a circuit draughtsman in the mid-70s, all of us in the development section drawing office hand-lettered our work. Each had their own version of the company style, so those in the drawing office could always tell who had lettered that particular drawing.
That was before we "upgraded" to ISO stencils!

[OscarFoxtrot]

There is also an online converter here
http://www.fonts101.com/handwriting_convert
And the original Uno Stencils are still available on ebay.

[McMurdo]

Your description of these fonts (typefaces?) sounds to me mind-boggling to envisage. Do you have picture examples?

Coming from an industrial background I've worked with most electrical diagrams from most countries starting with hand drawn block lettering (as taught in technical drawing at school).

[suebutcher]

Seconded. I'm interested in typography and I'd like to see examples.

[G8HQP Dave]

Metafont is another way of making your own fonts. If you have ever used TeX or LaTeX for technical publishing then you were probably using fonts defined by Metafont.

[M0FYA Andy]

Are you sure that there aren't suitable fonts already available?

I recently completely redrew a quite complex circuit of an RAF Indicator Unit originally drawn in the 1950s. I had an original in appalling condition which I scanned and then totally reconstructed in MS paint. I wanted the end result to look as identical in style to the original as possible, including fonts. From the enormous choice available in Paint I found suitable ones which I was quite pleased with.

Andy

[Chris55000]

Hi!

Here are samples of the letters produced, taken from A. West's "Uno Stencil Technical List":-

Picture 1 is the upright Block Capitals & lower case used by Radio Constructor from about mid 1962 up until the magazine's closure in August 1981.

It can also be found in the RSGB's publications up until about 1969 and in "Electronic Engineering" magazine;

Picture 2 is the sloping letters used by PW & PT from 1948 to mid 1961 - it is also used by Thorn/BRC in Audio/TV Service manuals during the 60s/70s for Voltage readings, Test Point Markers and PCB Connection points;

Picture 3 is very similar to (but not quite totally identical!) the upright lettering used by PW/PT from mid 1961 till about mid 1977 when Continental-style lettering replaced this;

Picture 4 is Wireless World's Condensed Upright Lettering used from 1948 to mid 1968 - it is used by Thorn/BRC on their Audio/TV Circuit Diagrams for Component Reference Nos and the Component Values, and many Test Equipment Manuals (Cossor, etc.,) use it;

Picture 5 is Reddifusion/Doric's Upright Block lettering with a "primary-school" lower-case 't' - nearly all of RD's Service Manuals were produced using it!

These styles of lettering are NOT all identical by any means and no-one, to my knowledge, has produced an exact form as a ready-to-use PC TTF!

Chris Williams

[paulsherwin]

That looks very like Gill Sans to me, but I'm not a typographer.

[mole42uk]

It's not Gill Sans, the B and the J are very different and Gill has sharp ends to the strokes, not rounded like this one.

[Chris55000]

Hi!

As a PS to the above, these styles of lettering were (and still are!) used by the railways as well - have a look at the signal number-plates in this pic of Banbury Station taken after the recent resignalling just over a month ago - you'll see the similarity between the "Wireless World" style letters/numbers in Picture 4 above and the font NR uses for it's signal-post numbers and speed indicator signage!

Chris Williams

[Oldcodger]

i've just had a look at the fonts on my copy of Word 2003 and there's several different versions of GILL **** fonts on there.

[paulsherwin]

Originally Posted by mole42uk

It's not Gill Sans, the B and the J are very different and Gill has sharp ends to the strokes, not rounded like this one.

The ends of the strokes are rounded because they are a stencil. I agree that the font isn't GS, but it's very similar and may be adapted from it.

British Railways used GS extensively for their public signage before they switched to Rail Alphabet in the mid 60s, though the numbers on the signals are obviously not GS or RA. Presumably they are also a stencil font of some sort.

[suebutcher]

Thanks for the scans. Those look very British. If it were me, I'd use Photoshop to cut and paste the letters. It wouldn't be much slower than using a pen and stencil.

[SurreyNick]

Almost any graphic design company that regularly uses topography will be able to give you crisp images of those letters which you can then convert into a TTF for PC and one for Mac. There are lots of solo-designers out there who might do it at an affordable price and if you can find a few fellow enthusiasts to chip in you might have yourself a solution. You can always then offer the new font as a 'paid-for' font on the various font sites. You might even make your money back.

[JohnBG8JMB]

If I can upload it this should do - best in 18 point or larger
Looks like UNO stencil

JohnB.

ps - Can't upload a .ttf file "invalid file type" - how do I send this?