MTA Luminator Bus Sign Fonts

I think some of you remember my bus photos as well as my close-ups of the Luminator LED/flip-dot bus signs on the bus's front and sides. Of course, I took shots of buses for fun, but there was another reason.

 

What I wanted to do was to figure out the fonts of the bus signs, hence the zoom shots of the letters, numbers, and symbols. My summer project was to take pictures of the typography found on the bus signs and create the fonts for myself and make the replications as accurate to the signs as possible.

 

And now, as I'm almost done, I'm presenting you sets of the typography that I found (or had to make up for myself/find on other transportation systems), designed, and replicated to create a complete typography found on the MTA signs. Here are a couple of sets:

 

 

 

There are two more sets and will appear as late as Friday evening. See you soon! If you spot any errors, let me know, and I'll correct them.

 

P.S.: If you'll notice, I didn't replicate the "0" in many cases. This is intentional; the "O" and the "0" appear the same on almost all the fonts except a select few.

Nice, dude.

Nice, dude.

Thanks. Glad you like it.

 

For all the hard work and effort, I really appreciate you doing this for all of us.

Aw, thank you! This really did take a long time. The typefaces/fonts took about two months to design and nearly complete on the computer, but it took about a year of bus-sign picture-taking and researching to get it exactly right.

 

More will be coming soon.

Really nice work. A couple of years ago I started working on my own fonts and know exactly how hard it is to get this done. Nice job! :tup:

Thanks for sharing this with us. Good work! :tup:

excellet work!!! I tried this with the LCD and LED subway signs a while back and it truly is hard work! much props!

Really nice work. A couple of years ago I started working on my own fonts and know exactly how hard it is to get this done. Nice job!

Aw, thank you! *blush* I hope that you decided to continue working on your font.

 

Thanks for sharing this with us. Good work!

Thanks. Glad you loved it!

 

excellet work!!! I tried this with the LCD and LED subway signs a while back and it truly is hard work! much props!

Thanks. I hope you're continuing to work on making the signs, because once you're done, you can look back and feel proud of what you created. Like I said earlier, designing these characters were a lot of hard work. And I'm not completely done publishing them!

 

Thanks for the compliments, everyone! Hope you enjoyed viewing them!

Excellent fonts, the last one also looks like it doubles for the R32/38 front sign

Excellent fonts, the last one also looks like it doubles for the R32/38 front sign

 

You bring up a good point right there! Lol

Very nice work. You should put the sets together with pictures so that we can compare them.

These looks very good :tup:

Excellent fonts, the last one also looks like it doubles for the R32/38 front sign

Thanks. By the way, you brought up a good point. The second group of fonts DO look a lot like the ones on the R32 and R38 cars. I didn't think of that before.

 

Very nice work. You should put the sets together with pictures so that we can compare them.

You know, that's a good idea. Once I'm done, I'll get some of my photos and others that I found online to help create my fonts and post them to compare them.

 

These looks very good

Thanks!

 

My typefaces are just about done. I just need to preview them one more time, and then they'll be published.

 

Also, I've made some additions and corrections of the two sets of fonts already published. Everything will be uploaded by tomorrow afternoon at the latest. See ya, then! ^^

Well, it's time! Here are the rest of the fonts!

 

There weren't many changes here. So far, the only noticeable ones are:

 

1. the addition of the "plus" sign in the thin-letter six-dot font.

2. An extended pound sign for the thick and thin-stroked seven-dotted fonts.

3. Thick "plus" signs for the thick-stroked, five- and six-dotted fonts.

 

This one here includes the special Luminator letter symbols found on some buses.

 

1. The "D" next to the E is the letter for the M14D route.

2. The "M" next to the pound sign is the "M" symbol for Manhattan.

3. The "Q" next to the "R" is the Queens symbol.

4. The "A" next to the "B" is the A-branch symbol.

5. The "S" next to the T is the Staten Island symbol.

6. The "N" next to the O is the Nassau County symbol.

7. The "X" next to the Y is the designated "Express" symbol.

 

 

 

This one here has the most changes:

 

1. A skinnier "N" for the 15-dotted font.

2. Moved a bar for the 15-dotted "A" up one row.

3. Additions of plus signs and pound signs.

4. Tinkered with the 15-dotted "5" and 16-dotted "M."

5. Extended the 16-dotted "K" and "L" a little.

 

That's it! After about a year, the fonts have finally been completed. It took a lot of picture-taking, researching, and designing on Illustrator (that's the program I used to create this), but it's worth it.

 

Yet, this project may never actually be finished. There are also condense thick fonts out there, such as the side destination sign of the Q35 that I noticed after leaving the Roadeo. But that's for another time, and I'll get to that someday.

 

Soon, I will put up and link some photos that helped me recreate the Luminator fonts so you can see the resemblance, research, and inspirations to create these fonts.

 

I hope all of you enjoyed the "complete" collection of fonts here. Again, if there are any errors in the typefaces, let me know so I can immediately correct them. See you soon!

I downloaded the pictures in hope of piecing together a sign, but I noticed the backgrounds were black!

 

How do I superimpose the dark LED's onto these pictures? I assume its not copying each and every pixel assembly in Paint, right? I do have Illustrator.

 

Sorry for reactivating this old thread.

On 3/30/2010 at 4:56 PM, Amtrak7 said:

I downloaded the pictures in hope of piecing together a sign, but I noticed the backgrounds were black!

 

How do I superimpose the dark LED's onto these pictures? I assume its not copying each and every pixel assembly in Paint, right? I do have Illustrator.

 

Sorry for reactivating this old thread.

Use a software called paint.NET which you can get at getpaint.net and you can use the Magic Wand tool to select all the text or the background and change that color to the selected one using Backspace and/or use layers to make it easier.

I can't believe I haven't found this until now! Great work, I will see if I can use it in one of my projects!

On 8/22/2009 at 11:04 AM, RTS CNG Command said:

Well, it's time! Here are the rest of the fonts!

 

http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m294/darkqiviut/MTA%20Luminator%20Font/MTA%20Luminator%20Font%20II/MTAtypography5-1reduce.jpg

There weren't many changes here. So far, the only noticeable ones are:

 

1. the addition of the "plus" sign in the thin-letter six-dot font.

2. An extended pound sign for the thick and thin-stroked seven-dotted fonts.

3. Thick "plus" signs for the thick-stroked, five- and six-dotted fonts.

 

http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m294/darkqiviut/MTA%20Luminator%20Font/MTA%20Luminator%20Font%20II/MTAtypography6reduce.jpg

This one here includes the special Luminator letter symbols found on some buses.

 

1. The "D" next to the E is the letter for the M14D route.

2. The "M" next to the pound sign is the "M" symbol for Manhattan.

3. The "Q" next to the "R" is the Queens symbol.

4. The "A" next to the "B" is the A-branch symbol.

5. The "S" next to the T is the Staten Island symbol.

6. The "N" next to the O is the Nassau County symbol.

7. The "X" next to the Y is the designated "Express" symbol.

 

http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m294/darkqiviut/MTA%20Luminator%20Font/MTA%20Luminator%20Font%20II/MTAtypography3reduce-1.jpg

 

 

http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m294/darkqiviut/MTA%20Luminator%20Font/MTA%20Luminator%20Font%20II/MTAtypography4-1reduce.jpg

This one here has the most changes:

 

1. A skinnier "N" for the 15-dotted font.

2. Moved a bar for the 15-dotted "A" up one row.

3. Additions of plus signs and pound signs.

4. Tinkered with the 15-dotted "5" and 16-dotted "M."

5. Extended the 16-dotted "K" and "L" a little.

 

That's it! After about a year, the fonts have finally been completed. It took a lot of picture-taking, researching, and designing on Illustrator (that's the program I used to create this), but it's worth it.

 

Yet, this project may never actually be finished. There are also condense thick fonts out there, such as the side destination sign of the Q35 that I noticed after leaving the Roadeo. But that's for another time, and I'll get to that someday.

 

Soon, I will put up and link some photos that helped me recreate the Luminator fonts so you can see the resemblance, research, and inspirations to create these fonts.

 

I hope all of you enjoyed the "complete" collection of fonts here. Again, if there are any errors in the typefaces, let me know so I can immediately correct them. See you soon!

How do I convert this image into a TXT to use for my own signage?

On 6/11/2021 at 12:00 PM, BryanPlayz0518 said:

How do I convert this image into a TXT to use for my own signage?

You'll have to recreate the font manually if it's a jpg. Fortunately, I've already remade the Luminator fonts using FontStruct which you can find at https://fontstruct.com/fontstructors/1466679/bentheminer