page_title: DIN 1451
section_title: Overview
hierarchical_section_title: DIN 1451 / Overview
caption_attribution_description: English: photograph of a specimen showing of DIN 1451's DIN-Engschrift typeface.
context_page_description: DIN 1451 is a sans-serif typeface that is widely used for traffic, administrative and technical applications.
  It was defined by the German standards body DIN - Deutsches Institut für Normung, pronounced as "Din", in the standard sheet DIN 1451-Schriften in 1931. Similar standards existed for stencilled letters.
  Originally designed for industrial uses, the first DIN-type fonts were a simplified design that could be applied with limited technical difficulty. Due to the design's legibility and uncomplicated, unadorned design, it has become popular for general purpose use in signage and display adaptations. Many adaptations and expansions of the original design have been released digitally.
context_section_description: The DIN 1451 typeface family includes both a medium (Mittelschrift) and a condensed (Engschrift) version; an older extended version (Breitschrift) has not been used since the early 1980s, but may still be encountered on older road signs in Germany. DIN 1451 is the typeface used on road signage in Germany and a number of other countries. It was also used on German car number plates from 1956, until replaced there in January 1995 by FE-Schrift, a typeface especially designed to make the plates more tamper-proof and to optimize automatic character recognition. The typeface has gained popularity due to its wide exposure through its release as a PostScript typeface in 1990. Since then, it is also used by non-governmental organisations and businesses. For graphic design and desktop publishing, several type foundries offer redesigned and extended versions of this typeface.
caption: Early DIN-Fette Engschrift specimen. Fette Engschrift is a single weight of the DIN 1451 typeface.
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