I am working on making my own decals, and I was was wondering if there was a previous thread with a list of microsoft word fonts or full list that closly resemble railroad fonts (Roman, Gothic, Nickel Plate Rd. style font, etc). Thanks for any help in advance.
-Alex
According to LION, use you own eye to show what looks good for your project.
Yes some railroads specify fonts and things like that, and I have seen such “Style Sheets” from NS.
If you have a particular railroad in mind, contact the intrest group for that railroad and ask there.
LION models New York City Transit (NYCT) and sure enough somebody came through with the INDEPENDENT font. Of course, NYCT has not used that font in 50 years, but I still like it and will continue to use it. After all, who is to say what era my trains are really running in, but it does seem to be correct for the equipment and period that I am running.
ROAR
I have a Microscale decal sheet of Railroad Roman, so that’s perhaps one to search for.
I had a virus nightmare a while back trying to download a font. It used to be that I could find one and just download it. Now, most of the links for free fonts have some sort of “installer” program that installs viruses and adware instead. Be careful and make sure your anti-virus software is up to date.
And, if you’re trying to create white lettering, you are probably better off seeing what’s available from companies that make decal sheets.
I purchased several railroad fonts from this site and used Corel DRAW to finalize the artwork.
This was several years ago so I don’t have any recent dealings with the seller but I am satisfied with the quality of the work.
Have fun, Ed
You probably don’t need the full alphabet, so you could probably make your own letters in Inkscape. If you can find a hi-res image of the logo or lettering you’re doing, load that into Inkscape as a reference image. Use reference lines or the grid feature to keep everything a uniform height.
Steve S
Railfonts has a good rep and been around since I first got on a computer in the mid-90s. I’ve never used them, but I’ll second Ed’s endorsement if you need a real font and not something that’s just close. I’ve known and heard of satisfied customers over the years.
Thanks for all the info guys, but is there anything that is free out there?
Alex:
There are several sites that allow you to download FREE railroad roman and railroad roman extended (stretched out) types, among others. Google in “Free railroad roman font” and they should show up. Save them to your desktop first. Some may be zipped files that will self extract when you drag the zipped icon to your font master file.
Other fonts I have found for free- a very close analog to the Great Northern empire font (see my Cedarwood models in the Photo Gallery) and various “streamline” or “streamlined” fonts. I used something like that on my TOFC white Great Northern trailer car (photo gallery).
Often, changing the “aspect” of a particular font will render it virtually identical to one you may want to use. In addition, at HO scale, some “analog fonts”- which have very slight differences in structure and shape comapred to the real thing-are microscopic at fonts sizes below 14 (MS Word).
Spending money for this stuff (Railfonts.com) is not necessary.
Also, you may find a number of useful other fonts that may help with various railroad’s lettering styles.
Be forewarned- I spent a LOT of time “nosing around” these websites- it gets addicting! [:P]
Cedarwoodron
I got this text font from the Monon Historical Technical Society.
Free? Free? Nothing is FREE. If you are not the customer (PAYING for a product) then you are the product that they are selling to others, visa ads on thier sites, or worse ads or trojans embedded in thier files.
If Ivan Badenough wants into your computer, what better way than for him to offer free fonts and hide his malcode in there.
LION would be very careful what him downloads to the 'putter of him.
ROAR
Thanks for the info. I’ll probably stick to the manufactured decals.
I’m with Cedarwoodron on the addictive qualities of font search - I have over 500 fonts installed on my computer.
I DO perform a fair bit of work as a graphic designer, so that’s my excuse. But be careful out there…
Lion: are you confusing Boris Badenoff, arch-enemy of Rocky and Bullwinkle, with another fellow?
Actually, you have a good point about internet searches in this regard, but there are a number of regular reputable (validated by my security software) free font sites which I visit when looking for a particular style. Having said that, anti-malware software (Anti-Malware Bytes) combined with a robust internet security antivirus software that screens while you are on-line (I use Ad-Aware antivirus) is a critical idea.
Cedarwoodron
a good place to start is here.
I have both railroad roman and railroad gothic and will be glad to send them to you. Please email me at igoldberg1@comcast.net and I will reply with the fontss attached.
Ira
Alex,
Don’t let all this talk about fonts discourage you from trying to make your own decals. Sooner or later, you’re going to need (want) a decal that is not commercially available. I’d be willing to bet that you already have quite a few fonts on your computer. One of these is bound to be pretty close to what you desire and at scale size will be indistiguishable from the prototype font.
Speaking of fonts, many of the fonts came from the railroad’s drafting department and were original. I have that problem wiiht gold leaf lettering for Wabash passenger cars. I can get close with standard fonts and decal sets but not right on.
Victor A. Baird
Hornblower make the same point I was- I started making my own decals a few years ago and haven’t looked back- can’t do white letters, but having worked with both clear and white-backed decal paper, I find it’s easier to work in a quantity amount and at a quality level that makes it highly cost-effective. I paid $15.00 for 5 white and 5 clear 8.5x11 decal sheets, from which I use perhaps1- 2 inches each lettering project from each sheet, generally. My last order (10 sheets of clear decal paper), over 2 years ago, lasted through about 20 rolling stock car rebuilds. When you compare that to buying a 5x7 sheet from Microscale at $8.00+ and using only some of those decals, or having to buy multiple sheets, well…
Cedarwoodron
Thank you all for the advice and info. I’ll have to think about it and soak in all possibilities.
-Alex
For non windows users please disregard…
Alex, Im not aware of any list per se, but if you open your “Fonts” directory you can see all the fonts associated with your puter. Has nothing to do with “Word”. MS Word may add a few fonts to the basic Win setup (depending on your version), but then so do other MS Office or graphics programs. Getting the other programs isnt free.
There is one lil gem hardly anyone knows is there. It is a font editor for Windows TTF type fonts. Its free because its buried inside Win 7. Meaning, by using it, you can modify your existing ‘Word’ fonts into whatever shape you want. Its a nitty gritty lil program that isnt as nice as your Acad’s or the like, but it is fast and free.
Depending on your Win 7 version, you can find it here:
For Win 7x32 = "c:\windows\system32"
For Win 7x64 = "c:\windows\sysWOW64"
The program name is “eudcedit.exe”. Just a quick, slam-bam thank you mam proggy to modify current Win TTF fonts. Its done by bitmapping, so logos and roadnames will print fine. However, small fonts like ‘car data’ tend to lose a bit of their shape.
Note: this program does NOT save the font as a file. It will keep it internally until Win 7 is reloaded. So if you get virused and have to reload, you lose everything. Otherwise, once created, your font will remain and be usable in any Windows programs… Office type progs and Graphics type. Any Win program that uses fonts.