I have posted a couple photos of the script font used by the National
Park Service at http://www.joeinfo.com/joesPhotos . If anyone can
suggest a script font that closely resembles this, please email me at
randy@joeinfo.com. Thank you!

omahaweb@aol.com wrote:
> I have posted a couple photos of the script font used by the National
> Park Service at http://www.joeinfo.com/joesPhotos . If anyone can
> suggest a script font that closely resembles this, please email me at
> randy@joeinfo.com. Thank you!
> 


As a cursory examination of your two photos makes obvious, you are not 
looking at a font at all. The National Park Service signs, routed in 
wood, are produced by skilled craftsmen who sketch the lettering 
freehand while looking at examples in some sort of manual or sample book 
and then execute the lettering with wood-cutting tools and paintbrushes. 
That is, they do not project a digitally set line of type onto the wood 
and tracing. So there is no font to be had.

There is a rich tradition of sign lettering, and there are many 
published resources in terms of model books. My guess, though, is that 
the easiest place to start is with the Park Service. A few phone calls 
should get you to their sign shop, where you can inquire about what they 
use for lettering models.

Aus den Werken von omahaweb@aol.com:

> I have posted a couple photos of the script font used by the National
> Park Service at http://www.joeinfo.com/joesPhotos . If anyone can
> suggest a script font that closely resembles this, please email me at
> randy@joeinfo.com. Thank you!

In addition to what Dick said: you might want to look around
at http://bowfinprintworks.com/ScriptIDGuide.html to try
and find a similar font.

Andreas

On Fri, 19 May 2006 08:45:23 -0400, Dick Margulis wrote:

> omahaweb@aol.com wrote:
>> [quoted text muted]
> 
> 
> As a cursory examination of your two photos makes obvious, you are not 
> looking at a font at all. The National Park Service signs, routed in 
> wood, are produced by skilled craftsmen who sketch the lettering 
> freehand while looking at examples in some sort of manual or sample book 
> and then execute the lettering with wood-cutting tools and paintbrushes.

I disagree. The same look exists at every national park.
I've also believe I have seen the font used in national part brochures,
which would indicate a digital form probably exists (though it may not be
public)

I suspect they use a template to create what is then carved.

Michael A. Peters wrote:
> On Fri, 19 May 2006 08:45:23 -0400, Dick Margulis wrote:
> 
>> omahaweb@aol.com wrote:
>>> [quoted text muted]
>>
>> As a cursory examination of your two photos makes obvious, you are not 
>> looking at a font at all. The National Park Service signs, routed in 
>> wood, are produced by skilled craftsmen who sketch the lettering 
>> freehand while looking at examples in some sort of manual or sample book 
>> and then execute the lettering with wood-cutting tools and paintbrushes.
> 
> I disagree. The same look exists at every national park.
> I've also believe I have seen the font used in national part brochures,
> which would indicate a digital form probably exists (though it may not be
> public)
> 
> I suspect they use a template to create what is then carved.


You are free to disagree. I have no idea whether the National Park 
Service has one, two, or twenty sign shops to serve the whole country. 
Nonetheless, I'll stand by my description of how the signs are produced. 
If you look at the OP's linked images, you will see enough differences 
in detail that it is quite obvious there is a person's hand intervening 
between lettering sample and carved board.

Only in the last few years has there been a convergence between font 
technology and signmaking technology. Prior to the most recent 
generation of equipment, sign lettering was specified in books of 
mechanical drawings, and it wouldn't surprise me to learn that the the 
Park Service still does that. As to what they may have used in 
brochures, without having them in front of me I couldn't say. It's 
entirely possible they executed the titles in an art medium and 
photographed the results.

Michael A. Peters wrote:

> On Fri, 19 May 2006 08:45:23 -0400, Dick Margulis wrote:
> 
> 
>>omahaweb@aol.com wrote:
>>
>>>[quoted text muted]
>>
>>
>>As a cursory examination of your two photos makes obvious, you are not 
>>looking at a font at all. The National Park Service signs, routed in 
>>wood, are produced by skilled craftsmen who sketch the lettering 
>>freehand while looking at examples in some sort of manual or sample book 
>>and then execute the lettering with wood-cutting tools and paintbrushes.
> 
> I disagree. The same look exists at every national park.
> I've also believe I have seen the font used in national part brochures,
> which would indicate a digital form probably exists (though it may not be
> public)
> 
> I suspect they use a template to create what is then carved.

Possibly, but a template is NOT a font; however, the same script IS 
used in other ways, such as:

http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~jlin/signs/usa/National_Forest.gif

This is NOT the National Park Service, but the US Forest Service, a 
division of the Department of Agriculture. There is no connection 
between the FS and the NPS (although some National Parks are in 
National Forests). The NPS is part of the Department of the Interior.

You might try just asking them directly!
http://www.fs.fed.us/contactus/

I haven't been able to find any indication that the FS has published 
any standards or any PDF's that have this script embedded as a font - 
but I'll bet they exist somewhere. There's no such thing as a US 
Government agency without a 50-volume set of trivial standards.


The NPS does have its own typographic standards; their standard serif 
font is NPS Rawlinson, and Frutiger for sans-serif.  There are no 
other published standards.

http://www.nps.gov/hfc/pdf/site-bulletin/nps_type_standards.pdf

  - Character

Michael A. Peters wrote:

> 
> I suspect they use a template to create what is then carved.

Found it.  A nice old-fashioned lettering grid.  See M1-7 on this page:

http://www.azdot.gov/Highways/Traffic/MOASM.asp

Other words are probably just a matter of the designer's judgement.

  - Character