Clearview

Type designer James Montalbano announces that after years of development, the US Federal Government has finally given official interim approval for his Clearview to be used on all Federal roads. The ClearviewHwy site covers some of the extensive research Montalbano has presented at various type conferences.

The Clearview Type System includes 6 weights, with each weight provided with a version for positive contrast applications (light on dark) with letter shapes designed for viewing at greater distance and with overglow reduced or eliminated, and a version for negative contrast applications that is designed to compensate for the underglow of light color backgrounds with black type.

The Development Team: Clearview was designed and developed by an interdisciplinary team including perceptual psychologists, traffic engineers, type designers, graphic designers, vision experts and optics engineers. Primary research was conducted by the Pennsylvania Transportation Institute and the Texas Transportation Institute.

The ClearviewHwy font software was developed by the Clearview design team. ClearviewHwy font software is fully compatible with all SignCAD products. The ClearviewHwy fonts are displayed in SignCAD with full dimensions and with tables showing letter widths and spacing. The Clearview fonts are scaleable for both English and Metric formats.

The following have already adopted Clearview:
- Texas (statewide)
- Pennsylvania
- British Columbia
- Toronto (older version)
- Yukon
- other Canadian municipalities

It could take years before it appears elsewhere, as individual states must decide whether or not to make the switch. They are not required to do so.

(source: Typographica)

Text to be Read at 60 MPH.
James Montalbano; "In my work designing highway typefaces, it has been my experience that a text typeface makes a terrible highway typeface, but a highway typeface makes a pretty good text typeface."

Clearview, a design Montalbano has honed and tweaked for 8 years. The effort has paid off.

The U.S Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) approved ClearviewHwy for use on the Federal highway system. Versions of the font are already in use by transportation systems in parts of Pennsylvania, Toronto and Dallas. Montalbano is developing a website to show off Clearview.

Clearview type is trademarked by Meeker & Associates.

James Montalbano is principal of Terminal Design, Inc. His Brooklyn NY firm specializes in typeface design, font development and digital lettering. James has designed custom fonts and lettering for editorial, corporate, government, and publishing clients including: Vanity Fair, Vogue, Glamour, Brides, Fortune, and Money magazines; Little Brown & Co. Inc., Scribner, JC Penny, Miller Brewing, The American Medical Association and The U.S National Park Service.

Over the past ten years he has been working on the Clearview type system that includes the FHWA-approved ClearviewHwy for roadway signs, ClearviewOne for text and display and ClearviewADA for wayfinding and signage. Montalbano is a past president of the Type Directors Club and currently serves as its Chairman. He teaches type design and digital lettering at Parson School of Design.