What is name of font used for N-Numbers??

[irishj3seaplane]

In a jam - and need a hand.
Have a DAR coming on Thursday to me Ireland. I need to have an N number on the A/C that day, even temporarily stuck on till I get a properly designed one. The Sign Writing place here in town cannot figure out how to get the N Number......

12" High
8" Wide
2" Spacing
2" Character thickness

And still make it fit into the 58" space on the side of my Airplane. Is there a font that is commonly used for the job? They're coming up with all sorts of excuses, and its St Patricks Day tm. Not a great time to get it done. Does anyone know of someone who could do it up as a Vector file that I could just get printed?

Thanks

Irish

 

[cubdriver2]

Call Aerographics, ask for Marilyn, shes nice and ask here your ?

800 336 9633

Glenn

 

[skywagon8a]

five 8" wide characters spaced 2" apart equals 48". This gives you 5" on each end. What's the problem?

 

[Speedo]

five 8" wide characters spaced 2" apart equals 48". This gives you 5" on each end. What's the problem?

Well, he did say it was St. Patrick's day time. That could explain some math problems.

 

[PilotMikeTx]

Not sure how the timing would work, but I thought you could order vinyl stick-on letters from Spruce and even Sporty's.

 

[irishj3seaplane]

Mmmm - maths bad here most of the time. 6 Characters plus 5 spaces gives 58 inches... I guess the bit she can't figure is that how do you make a "1" the same width as an "W"......

Is it that critical that all characters are 8"??

Irish

 

[behindpropellers]

A pencil, ruler, some string, and black electrical tape. Sketch the numbers corners and make them with electrical tape for the day.

 

[mike mcs repair]

font
http://www.airweb.faa.gov/REGULATOR...88CAD8F05C2D360F86256EDF006D6C19?OpenDocument

(a) Each operator.....Roman capital letter "N" (denoting United States registration) followed by the registration number of the aircraft. Each suffix letter used in the marks displayed must also be a Roman capital letter.

size
http://www.airweb.faa.gov/Regulator...4D2C0ECA90FF41998625735B006B3013?OpenDocument

(c) Width. Characters must be two-thirds as wide as they are high, except the number "1", which must be one-sixth as wide as it is high, and the letters "M" and "W" which may be as wide as they are high.
(d) Thickness. Characters must be formed by solid lines one-sixth as thick as the character is high.
(e) Spacing. The space between each character may not be less than one-fourth of the character width.

 

[Rob Murray]

Nletters

There have been a number of fonts used over the years. Roman with clipped corners in straight or slanted was one of them. I prefer Helvetica or one of its derivatives - one of the cleanest and most legible of all type faces. But that's more opinion than fact.

 

[CaptFox]

Try Helvetica or Military Block (Amarillo USAF) fonts, and once in the graphics program adjust the size so it meets the height and width requirements.

If your stuck PM me the N number you require and I should be able to punch it in and send you a Vector file. (.eps) from the layouts I have setup for a current job. Probably be late tonight tho.

Good luck.

David.

 

[Rob Murray]

Letters

I went to a guy who makes signs and logo materials for vans and trucks for my N-numbers He has a machine that cuts letters & no.s on one piece of film, any color you want. In fact he did all the 'NO STEP' and other decals I needed for my plane. It's a peel and stick operation and the spacing between characters is correct. Which is what trips up most do it your selfers.

 

[OLDCROWE]

Anyone know the data for the factory lettering in 1977, including the slant angle utilized. I have a little touch up to do on N83604 (still original) and would like to make a template.

Thanks,

Kirby

 

[Patrol Guy]

I re-did a citabria once and had a sign out fit make nice numbers 12 inches high with 2 inch "lines", but to fit, I had them about 1.5 or 1.75 inch spacing. The 'man' made me remove them and space them 2 inches!!! That was a fair amount of heat gun work and they ended up wrapped some over the top, not looking as good, not counting the cost of a second set.


BTW, I just recovered and am painting a 1974 scout that came with 12 inch numbers. Is that old enough to go to the 2 inch size??

 

[NimpoCub]

There's a really nice guy in Ak. (yeah really!).
I dunno why he hasn't chimed in here, but he cut me some perfect (legal)letters, slanted, and mailed 'em for about half what the comm'l place wanted. He even sent some Xtra stuff.

He won't be getting too rich w/this so maybe that's why he's being quiet.
Thanks again Rich, the beer's on me (@ Nimpo)

 

[mike mcs repair]

BTW, I just recovered and am painting a 1974 scout that came with 12 inch numbers. Is that old enough to go to the 2 inch size??

yup over 30 years old......

 

[Patrol Guy]

thanks Mike, that will let me do a different paint design.

 

[PilotMikeTx]

I just did my N-Number in Photoshop to see how difficult it might be for future reference. It took me about an hour and I even applied a shadow. I used a knockoff of the Helvetica font called Coolvetica. I had to modify the "N" a little to get the legs to be exactly 2". Then I sized each number to be exactly 12". They would have extended above or below the baseline slightly, and probably looked better, but for this exercise I wanted 12" numbers. I spaced the closest points of each adjacent character exactly 2" apart. When it was all done, it was 58.5" in length. My N-number ends in "A" and the right leg of the "A" was the culprit. That could have been made a little narrower.

It would be possible, I think, depending on the makeup of your registration number, to fit it into a smaller space by slanting it.

BTW, I like that Coolvetica font. It has a vintage look to it.

 

[mike mcs repair]

..........
Then I sized each number to be exactly 12". They would have extended above or below the baseline slightly, and probably looked better,

if using a smooth font the round letters and numbers should be bigger(higher and lower) than the others or they will appear to be a different/smaller size..... optical thing... its like +3/8" above and bellow...