Mandatory (font)

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Mandatory
font Mandatory
category Sans serif
Client BSI Group
Creation before 2001
Alternative name Mandatory Typeface
example
Example for Mandatory

The Mandatory font is the official standard font for license plates in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland . It has been mandatory there since 2001 and was also used elsewhere as a machine-readable font.

design

It is a disproportionate font , which, like the German FE font, has an anti-forgery character. For this purpose, the thickness of some lines was varied, for example with "W" and "M" in the middle, or the additional line of the "Q". The font can be freely downloaded from the manufacturer K-Type . It is based on the designs for Charles Wright.

The British standard BS AU 145d defines the exact dimensions of the fonts - there is a normal form with a height of 79 mm and a width of 50 mm, as well as a reduced font for motorcycles and trikes with a height of 64 mm and a width of 44 mm. Only the characters for “1” (one) and “I” (Ida) deviate from it, which is just a vertical line. In the standardization, the character appears as part of the digits from 1 to 9 and is not listed under the letters. Conversely, no number “0” (zero) is recorded, as it corresponds to the shape of the existing letter “O” (Otto).

This is not an obstacle when used in Great Britain, for example the letters "I" and "Q" are never displayed and the letter "O" only exists in the region code for Oxford at the beginning of the character string. This means that in all other cases the characters can be clearly read as digits “1” (one) and “0” (zero).

The font for license plates has been binding since September 1, 2001, only vehicles built before January 1, 1973 may still have license plates in the old format. In the original standard, the font was still referred to as “the mandatory typeface”, translated as “the prescribed font” or “the mandatory font”. From the attribute of the mandatory font, the proper name, ie “the prescribed font”, in English “the Mandatory typeface” developed.

The font was also adopted by Brazil. However, in connection with the harmonization within the Mercosur confederation, it has been replaced by the FE publication since 2018.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ K-Type Independent Type Foundry → Mandatory .
  2. ↑ Mandatory Font | dafont.com .
  3. ↑ DVLA: V796: Display of Registration Marks for Motor Vehicles . July 7, 2012. Retrieved December 8, 2015.