Western Railroad Discussion > Santa Fe fonts

anyone know the name of the santa fe's fonts or if available anywhere for free?

The lettering on the side of the locomotive is Cooper Black.

Numbers on the cab are Railroad Roman.

ATSF-Freak, what is the font for the station and siding letters?

I'm not sure...but hang tight. I'm sure Mr Werkema will have the answer when he gets up on the west coast!

Besides Cooper (no "Black") in MY computer font files, the best of the lot is "James". The other two are identical to Cooper Black. None are 100% correct in appearance.

See attached.

Bob

ATSF100WEST......Out

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Cooper Black is the correct name. The others are knock offs using different names to avoid copyright laws. The font was designed in the early 20th century by famous typographer Joseph Goudy. The font Goudy Extra Bold is very similar.

Bill Pyper
Retired Printer
Salem. OR

ATSF-Freak Wrote:
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> The lettering on the side of the locomotive is
> Cooper Black.
>
> Numbers on the cab are Railroad Roman.


If you're doing late locos, make sure you recognize that Santa Fe had their version and EMD had their version... (See Cynthia Priest's book: "Santa Fe Diesels")

I have a number of ATSF stenciling diagrams that were scanned from mechanical department hard copies. Many of them have dates going back at least 50 years.

Almost every letter (hand drawn) has its own drawing, complete with dimensions. A closer look reveals some layout/ruler marks - drawn in pencil - but never fully erased. I've often wondered if that was ATSF designing their own typeface, or simply the result of the stencil-making process.

i found a downloaded the fonts here
http://www.webpagepublicity.com/free-fonts-c4.html

thanks

oh, i found the conrail fonts on there and downloaded them too.

Having spent many years working in a printshop, it has been interesting to observe how fonts on logos tend to morph over time. Give a graphic artist half a chance and he'll take liberties. With the advances in printing and computer technology, all the more speed with which this happens.

Before you accept that a font is standardized for a railroad, look more closely. Many tiny changes can happen over time. Look for alterations in such things as letter thicknesses, flourishes, rounding, streamlining, stretching, dropping capitals below the line, etc.

Also, letter colors and background colors play off of each other, so letter thicknesses sometimes need to be adjusted so they can stand out and be more clearly read.

Fred Harrison
Central Point, OR
CORPpower/JSS/EORS

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This a book you might be interested in , I found it on ebay a few years ago .............

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fredkharrison Wrote:

> Having spent many years working in a printshop, it
> has been interesting to observe how fonts on logos
> tend to morph over time. Give a graphic artist
> half a chance and he'll take liberties. With the
> advances in printing and computer technology, all
> the more speed with which this happens.

Indeed. The billboard lettering on the side of Santa Fe diesels post-1960 is close to Cooper Black, but not quite the same. In particular, note that the Cooper Black capital F has a vertical serif on the middle bar, while there is none on the Santa Fe version. The serif at the bottom of the F is also different - rounded in Cooper Black, trapezoidal on Santa Fe. Cooper Black is the closest readily available typeface to what Santa Fe used, but I wouldn't use it to design and print out decals for a model.

The lettering on station signs and depots is generically "sans serif." Helvetica or Arial will get you close. The capital G should be round and without a vertical tail, and the "peg leg" of the R is straight.

Mr. Pelouze's book on Santa Fe trademarks is still available new from the SFRH&MS store for $19.95 for members, $22.95 for non-members:

http://www.atsfrr.com/store/bookRef.htm

Evan_Werkema Wrote:

> Indeed. The billboard lettering on the side of
> Santa Fe diesels post-1960 is close to Cooper
> Black, but not quite the same. In particular,
> note that the Cooper Black capital F has a
> vertical serif on the middle bar, while there is
> none on the Santa Fe version. The serif at the

Damn straight!!!

Several years ago when I wanted a computer font based on the BNSF typefaces and was unable to find them, I drew up my own. Many of the base letters I took from photos or tracings directly off of the BNSF locomotives I operate at work. So I know very well that two fonts that I have, Cooper and Subway are both similar but differernt. I can tell that even at a casual glance!! Coooper is NOT it.

The fonts I came up with are derived from the BNSF lettering from just post-merger and then the one they changed to a few years later. I've posted links to them before - I've never sold them or anything, they are free for anyone who wants them.

These aren't totally perfect as for olde-time Santa Fe, but better than Cooper any day:

Here's one with the BNSF version of Railroad Roman style numerals:

http://members.trainorders.com/android/fonts/BNSFNarrow1x.ttf

And one with the Helvetica Medium style numerals:

http://members.trainorders.com/android/fonts/bnsfn3x.ttf

And then the wider lettering used later on:

http://members.trainorders.com/android/fonts/BNSFW3.ttf

-Andy T.

EDITED in 2014 to fix the links above - I had moved them to a different folder on the FTP.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/05/14 13:22 by Android.

Do you have any scans for the Santa Fe passenger car lettering?