FE-Schrift – forgery-impeding typeface

Re:FE-Schrift – forgery-impeding typeface by Semiapies on Saturday October 24, 2015 @05:42PM (#10444964)

It's an interesting design, but I find myself wondering how often license-plate forgery happened.

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Re:FE-Schrift – forgery-impeding typeface by paulsutter on Saturday October 24, 2015 @08:40PM (#10445448)

The article explains:

> The motivation for the creation of the typeface was spun in the late 1970s in the light of Red Army Faction terrorism

Given the amount of money spent on vehicle licensing, the additional work to create a font is small potatoes. It certainly doesn't cost more to produce.

It's analogous to choosing between TAI and UTC time in a system. They differ by only 36 seconds, but UTC clocks break during leap seconds. Why not just choose the right one.

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Re:FE-Schrift – forgery-impeding typeface by weinzierl on Sunday October 25, 2015 @05:12AM (#10446422)

   Whilst the DIN typeface was using a proportional font, 
   the FE-Schrift is a monospaced font (with different 
   spacing for letters and numbers) for improved machine 
   readability.

The German version of the Wikipedia article says more clearly that (despite the name: FE = hindering falsification) machine readability was the other important reason for the design and introduction of the typeface.

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Re:FE-Schrift – forgery-impeding typeface by mpclark on Sunday October 25, 2015 @06:49AM (#10446580)

I believe it is a problem here in the UK, where one can expect to be ANPRed several times on any journey that takes one out of town. A little bit of black tape can turn a six into an eight and make one anonymous, or make a stolen car appear legit.

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Re:FE-Schrift – forgery-impeding typeface by gayprogrammer on Saturday October 24, 2015 @07:21PM (#10445272)

Sometimes the severity of a crime outweighs the frequency. It may be worth preventing any forgery since, when it does happen, the effects are bad.

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Re:FE-Schrift – forgery-impeding typeface by MichaelGG on Saturday October 24, 2015 @08:06PM (#10445378)

Are license plates that hard to forge? How much work is it to stamp one? (Not to mention that you can get away with printing plates even on paper. A buddy was driving his car intercountry but didn't have his official plate, just the temp ones. Border agents were particular about that part. A bit of Photoshop and applying a bit of dust and no problems at all during a trip spanning 3 countries.)

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Re:FE-Schrift – forgery-impeding typeface by ianbooker on Sunday October 25, 2015 @04:34AM (#10446357)

You can actually just buy one for 12 euros, with any combination you like. The stamp, at least in Germany, seems to be the harder thing. It is more common to steal a plate and punch them out.

When you think about it, although the stamps are not that hard to fake, stealing a number plate is a matter of a second. You just clip it out of a plastic frame.

Source: My number plate was stolen in Germany last year.

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