Talk:Mandatory (typeface)

Typeface reconstruction

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  like this example
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  Arkansas-similar in height:width ratio to Erbar Light Condensed; Hill House typeface has a very similar curled 2
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  Cuba-finial ends of characters are beveled instead of serifed
• all letters were used, note Cubans repainted their old plates so some letters do not clearly show underlying bevel
  all letters were used, note Cubans repainted their old plates so some letters do not clearly show underlying bevel
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  North Carolina-variable thicknesses, similar to Goudy's Lining Gothic design of 1921-changing direction-North Carolina changed stamping typefaces every 3-4 years, better to illustrate that
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  please note characters D and F tilt \, characters C, E, P, R, and the lower leg of J tilt /, B is a distinctive style, both legs of the H tilt inward at the top, and characters A, K, N, S, T, U, W, X and Y don't tilt, not certain if other letters were used
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  my crude mockup of end idea-without grey background-that's something my old MSPaint does
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  my crude mockup of end idea-without grey background-that's something my old MSPaint does
• 
  changing direction-North Carolina changed stamping typefaces every 3-4 years, better to illustrate that
• 
  my crude mockup of end idea-without grey background-that's something my old MSPaint does

Article(s)

Vehicle registration plates, FE-Schrift

Request

please make characters uniform like File:FE-Schrift.svg, sorry for my strange images and eyeballing … -- Kintetsubuffalo (talk) 14:47, 5 April 2018 (UTC)

I have inverted some so all characters are darker than their background--Kintetsubuffalo (talk) 04:29, 12 April 2018 (UTC)

Graphist opinion(s)

"designed to prevent easy modification"?

Can anyone explain in what sense this font is designed to prevent modification? In the FE-Schrift article, it is explained that FE-Schrift cannot be modified by adding additional foreground colour strokes (usually black) without making the changes look odd. This is what one might typically expect would be done to falsify a vehicle registration plate. Adding background colour is less of a concern, since it will not be retroflective and hence will be obvious at night and under some other lighting conditions.

I grabbed a copy of WP's display of Mandatory, and tried modifying some of the characters in this way (actually by overlaying them in a graphics editor.) In almost everything I tried, it was easy, with perfect registration! Of the ones you might expect, a small number (V --> M and 7 --> Z) don't work, but most do, e.g. J --> U, L or F --> E, O or 0 --> Q, C --> G, O, Q or 0, P --> R, 3 --> 8. There are a few others that don't quite work, but the amount of overhang is so small that any infill with background colour would only be noticed by very close inspection, e.g. D --> B, P --> B, 6 or 9 --> 8.

In short, Mandatory does not seem any more resistant to modification than any average font. Unless someone can source or otherwise explain this claim, perhaps it should be removed? -- 122.200.24.30 (talk) 03:45, 18 October 2024 (UTC)