Here's Your Sign...

[C855B]

When letters on a model sign are only 1/8" or so tall, who is going to notice the R is wrong??

You are, now that you know what you're looking for. 1/8" tall capitals amount to roughly 12 point type. 12 points is large for a text face, a "text face" being a font intended to be read like a book, newspaper, etc. Those are typically 10 or sometimes 11 point. It may pass the 3-foot rule, but any closer you will see the difference. And the X height (a design parameter relating to lower case height and position of middle horizontal elements) controls proportions, and the lower X height of the original is in its own way distinctive.

Granted, as a typographer both hobby and professional I'm hypersensitive to stuff like this. Especially, that curved leg thing in the 'R'. It is something that has bugged me since Microsoft chose Arial as their default sans-serif so as to not pay Linotype a licensing fee* for Helvetica. Arial, in fact, was designed to be a Helvetica substitute - same proportions, same setwidths, but the character artwork was tweaked to be different enough per licensing rules. One of those tweaks was the accursed curved-leg 'R', I can spot it a thousand miles away and detest the attempts to pass it off as Helvetica. Microsoft since has adopted the curved-leg 'R' as a distinctive feature of their sans-serif faces.

* - Linotype was super-aggressive in the 1980's about licensing as they saw their market dominance slipping away. With two "other make" large typesetters already on the floor, I bought a single Linotype electronic typesetter for my department - $150,000 - because certain big clients demanded "genuine" Linotype faces. When we were having problems with its CPU and especially the large (for its day) hard disk, we were cautioned to avoid reformatting the HD fishing for a solution, as the microcode in the drive controller would only allow five reformats before bricking the disk completely. To replace the drive was $15,000, not including the $25,000 we would be required to pay to replace the font library.

I know, TMI.

[JMaurer1]

Tried cleaning this one up a bit...

[learmoia]

When letters on a model sign are only 1/8" or so tall, who is going to notice the R is wrong??

.... And the A, C, E, G, and S are also noticeably wrong..
Arguably (but not as obvious).. P, T, and N are wrong as well.

Tonight I'll submit my version...

~Ian

[C855B]

Tried cleaning this one up a bit...

Uh... you may have missed the point a couple of pages back: this one is not any good as a reference. It is a modern "restoration" by folks who didn't know the difference (or ignored it), using the closest modern vinyl letters from a lettering machine, a font not even in the ballpark. It's not the original sign.

[wazzou]

the same people who noticed that the MTL SW1500 was o.375 inches too wide

I don't know?  Who wouldn't have noticed 3/8" being out of place? 

[DKS]

.... And the A, C, E, G, and S are also noticeably wrong..
Arguably (but not as obvious).. P, T, and N are wrong as well.

I used to be a typographer, so I automatically see the differences as well. But my point is... there's a point of diminishing returns. Getting the Rs (and all the rest) right when the doors are wrong or the ride height is through the roof? One needs to set priorities... Just sayin'...

 

[learmoia]

I used to be a typographer, so I automatically see the differences as well. But my point is... there's a point of diminishing returns. Getting the Rs (and all the rest) right when the doors are wrong or the ride height is through the roof? One needs to set priorities... Just sayin'...

What is this.. Trainboard.com?   

However, I did discover a new free photo editing software that has a good perspective correction tool.. that seems to do a good job adjusting the skewed length corrections..

~Ian

[DKS]

What is this.. Trainboard.com?   

However, I did discover a new free photo editing software that has a good perspective correction tool.. that seems to do a good job adjusting the skewed length corrections..

~Ian

I use Corel PhotoPaint for perspective correction and CorelDraw for bitmap-to-vector conversion, but these tools are expensive and have a very steep learning curve for non-graphics folk. Adobe has equivalent tools, but since I've been using Corel since Version 1.0, it's my app of choice. I'm happy to do the work for others, as I have many times before.

[learmoia]

I used to have a copy of Adobe Photoshop.. but lost my CD and have since found what I need with Paint.Net (except this)

Gimp (odd name.. I know ) is what I just found.. also free.. and much more robust...

It may do a better job rendering transforms for direct transfer too.  Haven't gotten that far yet..

~Ian

[DKS]

Yeah, I messed with Gimp for a bit, but old dogs prefer using the apps they know...

[johnb]

I don't know?  Who wouldn't have noticed 3/8" being out of place? 

I missed a 0 in the number,  0.0375

[learmoia]

Well for an N scale woman.. that 0.0375 would make a big difference....

~Ian

[CRL]

Well for an N scale woman.. that 0.0375 would make a big difference....

~Ian

As the old saying goes... One inch more, he’d be king. One inch less, she’d be a queen.

[DKS]

Hey... nuff of this "mine bigger'n yourn" stuff...

[CRL]

Hey... nuff of this "mine bigger'n yourn" stuff...

The rivet discussion is over yonder.