Looking for Fonts used on US Navy aircraft?

I think you mean TLai Enterprises, they made that font "LongBeachUSN" and several others with military modelers in mind. One license for that font is $20.50, a bargain if you ask me! You can use it over and over again after all. I have a license for their MD Military Stencil A font, and I think it's the best software value out of anything I've ever purchased onlline. 

This guy deserves our money, and I hope modelers will support him to encourage him to eventually release his other in-progress projects. Him or others like him. 

https://www.tlai.com/med_des/lbusn.html

Nine years later, I know, but things do change. Another naval-aviation-marking font is available, this one legitimately for free: "USN_Stencil.ttf" (here it is at dafont.com), and you can compare it to the official USN lettering chart at Appendix A, pp. 44-45 paper (60-61 PDF), of MIL-STD-2161C(AS) "Department of Defense Standard Practice: Paint Schemes and Exterior Markings for U.S. Navy and Marine Corps Aircraft, 7 February 2014" (PDF download).

I just made a more comprehensive comparison and came the this conclusion, that the fonts are similar however, in the USAAF font the letters are wider and the spacing is completley different.  The USAAF font for the same point size is about 1/4 larger than the Longbeach. 

The way I came to this conclusion is in Corel Draw I overlayed the two fonts and was able to see the difference.

tyamada wrote:

AirMaster wrote: Hey all, The font you all want I found free a very long time ago and is exactly the same as LongBeachUSN called USAFF Code and I would be more than happy to share it with anyone that PM's me thier email address. OR.... You can download a FREE set here that includes the USAFF Code font. http://www.bobsyouruncle.net/font-types.htm Air Master That font is very close but not right.  The spacing is wrong and some of the characters are not right.  I suppose it would do in a pinch.  I have been looking for a long time and have not come across the Longbeach font for free yet. I purchased the Longbeach font years back along with the Amarillo and Military Stencil, it saved me from having to make them in Corel Draw. Use the fonts creating custom decals, it's a lot of fun.

Ty, I compared fonts on Paint Shop Pro and the only difference I can see is the J in USAFFCode has a flatter bottom than the J in LongBeachUSN but otherwise all other letters match up. I assume the author of the USAFFCode font did this so as to not to infringe. They are the same except for that one letter.

I think the best way to do this is get both the WMF file you offered and the font set I offered and just swap the J's out. This is the way I would do it.

Either way you go about doing this is a win win for all that need the LongBeachUSN font for custom decals. I will be using both.

Air Master

Hippy-Ed wrote:

Ok Rand, what are we to do with these once we download them? Do we just resize them for the scale we want?

They have to be installed in to your fonts folder to be used. They are true type fonts so I do not know if they can be used on a Mac but, I do know they will work on a a windows machine.

Air Master

AirMaster wrote:

Hey all, The font you all want I found free a very long time ago and is exactly the same as LongBeachUSN called USAFF Code and I would be more than happy to share it with anyone that PM's me thier email address. OR.... You can download a FREE set here that includes the USAFF Code font. http://www.bobsyouruncle.net/font-types.htm Air Master

That font is very close but not right.  The spacing is wrong and some of the characters are not right.  I suppose it would do in a pinch.  I have been looking for a long time and have not come across the Longbeach font for free yet.

I purchased the Longbeach font years back along with the Amarillo and Military Stencil, it saved me from having to make them in Corel Draw.

Use the fonts creating custom decals, it's a lot of fun.

Hey all,

The font you all want I found free a very long time ago and is exactly the same as LongBeachUSN called USAFF Code and I would be more than happy to share it with anyone that PM's me thier email address.

OR....

You can download a FREE set here that includes the USAFF Code font.

http://www.bobsyouruncle.net/font-types.htm

Air Master

If you use the following link:

http://www.rc-network.de/magazin/artikel_04/art_04-0040/art_04-0040-01.html#1

Scorll down to: USN-alt and download which ever file format you can use cdr ai or wmf.

You then can copy size and paste the letters/numbers in which ever graphics program you have.

If you use Microsoft Word then download the wmf file and insert it into word.

AirMaster wrote:

tyamada wrote: Here is a link you might find usefull: http://www.rc-network.de/magazin/artikel_04/art_04-40/symbole/usn_longbeach/LongBeachUSN.gif Yes, it would be very useful if I could read Dutch/German. :-) Thanks for trying anyway. Air Master

Try this:  go here

and paste the rc-network link in the above quote into the http field, then select german>english translation from the dropdown box and hit the translate button, it will translate that site into english so you can read it ;)

Sorry Trigger, I guess I caught that post on a bad day.

For a font that is as widely used for stenciling on military aircraft as Amarillo & Long Beach are, I guess I was expecting them to be more widely available as freeware. (Shows how much I know anout graphic design, eh?). I actually half-expected to be able to download them right into the little pull-down font menu on MS Word.

For the very few decaling ideas that I had, having to pay for the font kind of squashed them.

Andy

AirMaster wrote:

I have been to that web site, they want $20.00 USD for that font and that is way to expensive for me for a simple font, but thanks for your help anyway.

I've been in the graphic and commercial design business for over 10 years now; $20 for a typeface is a friggin' bargin.

Licensing fonts sounds like a swell idea -- right up there with licensing models.

We're not talking about an aircraft paid for by the taxpayers. Typefaces have long been subject to the same copyright protections as photographs and other intellectual properties. Very few typefaces are public domain. If the guy at TLai sat down and draws a typeface, formats it as TrueType and PostScript for both Mac and Windows users, then he has every right to charge for that font.

Yup, Thats the one and I did get the demo font of LongBeachUSN and it's useless. Thanks for trying Smokin, I appreciate it!

Air Master

AirMaster wrote:

tyamada wrote: Here is a link you might find usefull: http://www.rc-network.de/magazin/artikel_04/art_04-40/symbole/usn_longbeach/LongBeachUSN.gif Yes, it would be very useful if I could read Dutch/German. :-) Thanks for trying anyway. Air Master

I'm getting a broken link (I can sometimes struggle through Dutch and German.) 

AirMaster wrote:

Triarius, I have been to that web site, they want $20.00 USD for that font and that is way to expensive for me for a simple font, but thanks for your help anyway. Air Master

Yah, that's a bit steep—they must think they're Adobe…

And I meant my remark about reading FSM in a humorous way—sorry it didn't come across that way! 

$20 bucks, eh?

Licensing fonts sounds like a swell idea -- right up there with licensing models.

tyamada wrote:

Here is a link you might find usefull: http://www.rc-network.de/magazin/artikel_04/art_04-40/symbole/usn_longbeach/LongBeachUSN.gif

Yes, it would be very useful if I could read Dutch/German. :-) Thanks for trying anyway.

Air Master

Triarius,

I have been to that web site, they want $20.00 USD for that font and that is way to expensive for me for a simple font, but thanks for your help anyway.

Air Master

Here is a link you might find usefull:

http://www.rc-network.de/magazin/artikel_04/art_04-40/symbole/usn_longbeach/LongBeachUSN.gif

You should read the Q&A section of FSM more carefully. This was in the November 2006 issue:

fonts 

Wing,

There is one font I am really interested in called LongBeachUSN. From what I understand Navy uses this font squadron letter and numbering. ( ie: VF-99) Would you or anyone know how I can aquire this font for free? I have a demo version of it and its missing numbers and letters. The web site I found it on charges an arm and leg for the complete font.

Air Master 

Here are a couple of links that may help.

http://web.archive.org/web/20020210183915/members.aol.com/p5219/fonts.htm

http://www.bobsyouruncle.net/font-types.htm