Penny Lane

Penny Lane is a sans serif derived from twentieth-century cast-iron signs displaying Liverpool street names. Although the lettering used for vintage street signs varies in width and style, the semi-condensed Penny Lane Bold is fairly typical. The waist of letters like X and Y is positioned on the midline so may appear unusually high, the G is without a crossbar, and pointed characters like the Z might seem at odds with generally grotesque letter shapes.

Penny Lane is a straightforward, usable sans that looks modern and has a fresh lowercase with a healthy x-height designed for clarity; the fonts have been inspired by street sign lettering rather than insensitively tied to historical accuracy. A full complement of Latin Extended-A characters is included. Four nameplate frames can be found within each font for designing faux street signs, and a blank nameplate/wall jpeg is also included in the download.

You can read how Penny Lane became the chosen typeface of the Liverpool Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in the Kernel.

The licensed Family consists of five fonts – Regular, Italic, Bold and Bold Italic weights, and also a distressed Corroded Bold, made to simulate the roughness of cast and painted letters when creating reproduction signs. The Corroded Bold is available Free for Personal Use.