These are not “typefaces” as such, but medium-dependent alphabets, which means they were specifically created for road signs and are unavailable for any other application.

There is a slight possibility though that somebody digitised this, but I wouldn’t know. BTW These are the ugliest signage alphabets bar none I know of.

Exactly. I have to look at them every day! Then I saw them in Switzerland. But these were much better. The Belgian signs are old, they’ve been here for about 30 years or so. The Swiss are much more recent. They also have created different weights. The Swiss probably finetuned this old Belgian typeface, who knows...

But it’s not because they look ugly that they are less interesting. And I’m intrigued by the flat ’a’.

Does someone know the name or history or do you know a link or lead to the solution? Please help, it’s killing me!

Man, indeed, I hate these signs!

I know they have the exact same typeface for signs in the countries of the former people’s republic of Yugoslavia.

I also know that M. Olyff made a pretty good alternative somewhere in the seventies, but that it was never applied.

I see the Belgians are not too fond of there roads, have you seen the Ring lately?. It’s not the font that is crap, I guess. It’s the use of it. I must say, fellow countriemen, the same font was used very nicely in Switzerland. I think you can find this typeface on old playingcards (80’s), made by Carta Mundi, here in Belgium.

I think most of these are based on the German DIN (original! - digitzed as Engschrift, Mittelschrift and so on) that has been upgraded/adapted so well by Albert Pool.

That “a” looks like roadkill.

hhp