UK number plate font

It has always been a struggle to find a good match for the typeface used on UK number plates, and apart from drawing each character from scratch, the only other option seems to have been to settle for second best and simply 'make do' with something like Helvetica, Arial or Univers - none of which have anywhere near the right characteristics (no pun intended!).

Well, purely by accident, I discovered a font entitled UK Numberplate Font and it is available as a free truetype TTF font, downloadable from various sources - simply Google it, and job done!

HERE you will see a link to a blog entitled 'Complete Guide to Number Plate Fonts' which has some very useful information about the font, spacing, proportions, etc - it even mentions that the font is actually called 'Charles Wright' and apparently, there is even an updated version, which is sometimes called 'Charles Wright New'.

Has anybody else unearthed any useful typefaces that they would care to share?....

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Yes. I’ll send you a link later but there is a uk number plate website where you can mock up real plates in official fonts and layouts and then save down the image. I had the same challenge and this site has proved a god send for my model building in recent years.

Have been using that font for a long time now and its generally spot in. Very useful to have

Try:

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Even gets the right colour background

brian wrote:Have been using that font for a long time now and its generally spot in. Very useful to have

Many thanks, Brian - glad to know someone else is also using the font, and it is of use.

reeft1 wrote:Try:

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Even gets the right colour background

Thanks, Paul.

That site works perfectly fine, however I like to create vector artwork for my decals, whereas I guess you 'Print Screen' or take a snip and crop it down to the plate outline before saving as a jpg or similar.

With the 'UK Number Plate' font, you simply type the registration plate you need, convert the text to outlines or paths, and then fill it black before dropping it on top of an overall rectangle shape for the background of the plate. There's your vector atwork file done.

I guess it's all down to personal preference, and what software you use to create your decal artwork.

David - I do indeed crop and save as a jpg. Each to their own. My choice is driven by my non existent graphics skills.