Clearview (typeface)

Humanist sans serif typeface family for guide signs on roads in the United States

Clearview was granted interim approval by the FHWA for use on positive contrast road signs (light legend on dark background, such as white on black, green, blue, brown, purple or red) on September 2, 2004, though not on negative contrast road signs (dark legend on light background, such as black on white, yellow or orange), given its inferior legibility to the existing FHWA typefaces in these applications. The FHWA also refused to add Clearview to the 2009 MUTCD, citing lack of testing on Clearview's numerals, symbols, and narrower typefaces. In April 2014, FHWA indicated it expected to rescind Interim Approval to use Clearview in the future, eventually doing so in January 2016. Congress ordered the FHWA to reinstate the interim approval on March 28, 2018. Outside the US, Clearview has been adopted in Canada where it has been the standard typeface for signs in British Columbia since 2006 and used for street signs in Toronto. Clearview has been adopted as the standard typeface for road signs in Indonesia since 2014. Since 2016, Ontario's Ministry of Transportation has started using Clearview on some signs on the Queen Elizabeth Way.

In addition to its appearance on road signage, a customized version of the ClearviewText typeface was adopted by AT&T for corporate use, including advertising, used from 2006 to 2016.

The Transportation Association of Canada's MUTCD for Canada allows the use of Clearview, and the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario uses it for positive contrast guide signs. Toronto has been replacing its black on white street signs with newer white on blue signs that use Clearview since 2004, with exceptions for certain older neighborhoods. British Columbia has been switching to Clearview for all signage, including regulatory and guide signage.

The Ministry of Transportation promulgated a regulation in 2014 to introduce new road signs that would use the Clearview typeface. This new regulation was intended to meet ASEAN Economic Community standards starting in 2015. Previously, road signs in Indonesia had traditionally used FHWA Series fonts since 1993.

Signage in the Philippines uses Clearview on newer signs. The numbered shields in the Philippine highway network use Clearview.