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Speed of Travel:

Iden­ti­fy the type of traf­fic who will be view­ing the sign (side­walk traf­fic, down­town vehi­cles, or high­way traf­fic, for exam­ple). Pedes­tri­an ori­ent­ed and motorist ori­ent­ed signs have dif­fer­ent cri­te­ria of design.

View­er Reac­tion Time:

This rep­re­sents the amount of time nec­es­sary for a dri­ver to see a sign, read its mes­sage, process the infor­ma­tion, and make the nec­es­sary maneu­vers in response to the information.

View­er Distance:

How far do you plan to dis­play your sign from your view­er? Three feet or thir­ty feet? Design your sign accord­ing­ly, keep­ing in mind the indi­vid­ual with poor vision, rather than aver­age sight.

Notes On Vis­i­bil­i­ty and Legibility

• Leg­i­bil­i­ty dis­tance is about 85% of vis­i­bil­i­ty dis­tance. Stud­ies show that vis­i­bil­i­ty and leg­i­bil­i­ty are not inde­pen­dent; con­di­tions which reduce leg­i­bil­i­ty will pro­por­tion­ate­ly reduce visibility.
• Leg­i­bil­i­ty dis­tance at night is gen­er­al­ly only 88% of day­time leg­i­bil­i­ty. This pro­por­tion varies depend­ing upon col­or of let­ter­ing and background.
• Low­er case let­ters have a slight­ly greater leg­i­bil­i­ty dis­tance than cap­i­tal let­ters. Cap­i­tals are seen more quick­ly, but low­er case can be read more rapid­ly, a point to remem­ber when prepar­ing copy for motorist ori­ent­ed signs.
• Inter-let­ter spac­ing increas­es let­ter and word leg­i­bil­i­ty. This is espe­cial­ly impor­tant to motorist ori­ent­ed signs.
• Stroke width affects leg­i­bil­i­ty, but is relat­ed to let­ter size and spac­ing. Gen­er­al­ly, a stroke width one-fifth (1÷5) the height of a let­ter yields excel­lent legibility.