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The Clearview Font is a new typeface or alphabet style
which Penn State researchers have shown results in
nighttime legibility distances 16 percent greater than
Standard Highway Series E(M). Clearview letters can
actually be made larger than those is Series E(M) without
increasing the sign’s overall size.
With a 15-inch letter height, this could increase legibility
distance by 150 feet, allowing drivers almost two seconds
longer to read highway guide signs.
Clearview achieves its greater nighttime clarity by
avoiding the effects of a phenomenon called “blooming”.
Blooming occurs when a car’s headlights shine directly on a sign’s reflective letters. The letters can become so bright that they
lose their familiar shape, and look instead like blobs. Clearview retains its readability despite blooming because the letters have
been designed to have more interior space. As you can see in the comparison above, the B, e, g and a have more space inside
the letters so that when blooming occurs, the overglow doesn’t entirely fill them up.
Blooming is especially troublesome for those over the age of 65, who are more sensitive to high contrast problems. Daytime
field tests found no difference between the legibility of Clearview and that of Highway Standard Series E(M) font. However, at
night, with headlamps shining on the highly reflective materials, field test with older subjects showed that Clearview words in
the same size sign panel could be read from greater distances than in the standard font. |
