German Style Number Plates Trending..

bbability

I've noticed more and more number plates appearing on cars in a german style writing. Is this the new Black number plate?

They look good btw..

Compton

whether they look good or not is personal opinion.. I think they look crap and much prefer metal pressed plated with normal font..

Anan1

I think they look ridiculous. Imagine a German car in Germany with an Irish font...

Robbo

I keep seeing them on Skodas and Seats these days. Must be something to do with the celebrating the heritage of the venerable diesel lump in them.

Compton

This has also been done to death on this forum and has been convered so much...

The end result is: People can put whatever the hell they want on their car and nobody cares..

Anan1

shblob wrote: »

The end result is: People can put whatever the hell they want on their car and nobody cares..

Absolutely, but the OP seems to be looking for thoughts on how they look.

challengemaster

Anan1 wrote: »

I think they look ridiculous. Imagine a German car in Germany with an Irish font...

There's an Irish font these days? and tbh I don't think anyone in other countries would actually give a crap what people do with their own cars. They're a bit more grown up.

Delancey

Does the German Font ' fool ' GATSO Vans / Toll Cameras ?

si_guru

challengemaster wrote: »

There's an Irish font these days? and tbh I don't think anyone in other countries would actually give a crap what people do with their own cars. They're a bit more grown up.

Other countries - ALL - other countries I think have strict number plate appearance rules. So they do care, really care.

CiniO

Anan1 wrote: »

I think they look ridiculous. Imagine a German car in Germany with an Irish font...

I'd say such car wouldn't go to far.
It would be stopped by German police very quickly and heavily penalized.

CiniO

challengemaster wrote: »

There's an Irish font these days? and tbh I don't think anyone in other countries would actually give a crap what people do with their own cars. They're a bit more grown up.

With the car - maybe.
But not with the number plate.
In many countries number plate is treated as an official document, and so any modification of them could be considered as trying to falsify a document - which is actually a crime.

Matt Simis

Anan1 wrote: »

I think they look ridiculous. Imagine a German car in Germany with an Irish font...

I dunno what you mean, I totally can imagine that, I know people in other countries like the "Irish" plate layout (on pressed steel anyhow).
Still, I think these arent trending, they are totally played out. My S8 has them, but was on it when I got it. Wouldnt put them back if I need to replace.

challengemaster

CiniO wrote: »

With the car - maybe.
But not with the number plate.
In many countries number plate is treated as an official document, and so any modification of them could be considered as trying to falsify a document - which is actually a crime.

Yes, but if it followed the same laws as here for arguements sake, where it's just a numberplate. Obviously enough, if it's the law then the police are going to enforce it (unlike here) but if it wasn't, would people care?

Also I think that because we can't have personalised number plates, people look for other ways to alter them...

Rockery Woman

Noticed a lot of them lately in the South Dublin area. I was wondering about them to be honest. Is it a fashion thing? Seems more common on older 90's cars, never see them on new models.

I used to love the old black numberplates - they were nice.

Oral Surgeon

Delancey wrote: »

Does the German Font ' fool ' GATSO Vans / Toll Cameras ?

No, a mate of mine had these plates and he was well able to get the points in the post......

Richard

si_guru wrote: »

Other countries - ALL - other countries I think have strict number plate appearance rules. So they do care, really care.

I'm pretty sure Ireland has. I remember re-registering a car and getting a leaflet with the regulations describing the font, spacing and the fact that the EU stars, IRL, and the county name in Irish had to appear.

si_guru

Richard wrote: »

I'm pretty sure Ireland has. I remember re-registering a car and getting a leaflet with the regulations describing the font, spacing and the fact that the EU stars, IRL, and the county name in Irish had to appear.

Oh I am sure you are right, but nobody cares if you don't.

In the UK you could probably drive for a max of 1 week before getting pulled for illegal plates.

challengemaster

Richard wrote: »

I'm pretty sure Ireland has. I remember re-registering a car and getting a leaflet with the regulations describing the font, spacing and the fact that the EU stars, IRL, and the county name in Irish had to appear.

Since 1991, the design of the standard Irish number plate has been based on European standard guidelines, with a blue band to the left of the plate containing the 12 stars of the European flag and the country identifier IRL. The rest of the plate has a white background with black characters. Unlike legal requirements in most other European countries, a standard uniform character font is not required. The rules simply require legible black sans serif characters, no more than 70 mm high and 36 mm wide, on a white reflective background. The result is that a large variety of perfectly legal font styles may be seen, on either pressed aluminium or acrylic plates, both of which are allowed. Despite the rather relaxed lack of a specified font, the hyphen between the lettering must lie between the minimum dimensions of 13mm x 10mm or the maximum dimension of 22mm x 10mm. Also required is the full Irish language name of the county which must be positioned above the identifier.

flyguy

si_guru wrote: »

Oh I am sure you are right, but nobody cares if you don't.

Nobody cares.... except the NCT centre. The car will fail the test with "illegal plates" (altought it seems the "german style plates" are perfectly legal).

vectra

challengemaster wrote: »

Where did you get that quote from?

Might actually print that off to have in the car with me :P

CiniO

flyguy wrote: »

Nobody cares.... except the NCT centre. The car will fail the test with "illegal plates" (altought it seems the "german style plates" are perfectly legal).

Unless they display "D" instead of "IRL" on the left blue band, and don't have a fake german tax and test stickers between letters.
I've seen good few of that plates around.

si_guru

flyguy wrote: »

Nobody cares.... except the NCT centre. The car will fail the test with "illegal plates" (altought it seems the "german style plates" are perfectly legal).

I know the NCT do... but your average modded car has 2 sets of plates... I've watched my neighbour put her legal plates on an' peel off the screen visor every 2 years! ...next day they are back.

Same neighbour's hubby has a car without tax - for over a year. Local Gard certainly never cares about either!

vectra

flyguy wrote: »

Nobody cares.... except the NCT centre. The car will fail the test with "illegal plates" (altought it seems the "german style plates" are perfectly legal).

Not true at all.
I had a Civic pass the NCT with no hyphens in the plates
Carbon effect lettering which was non irish type

mondeo

I'm not a fan of those German plates at all, Every young fella driving an old basic spec golf, Bora, 316 seem to adopt these plates on their cars. They have become abit skangery, you see on a rare occasion a more desirable higher powered car which have them. If your happy with them fair enough. Now where did I put my Alpine window stickers?

challengemaster

vectra wrote: »

Where did you get that quote from?

Might actually print that off to have in the car with me :P

Took that exact one from Wiki (which I know isn't a proper "source", but it does the job)

Here's a citizens information link which also has links to the relavent pieces of the Irish statute book. Nowhere in it will you find mention of a specific font...

vectra wrote: »

Not true at all.
I had a Civic pass the NCT with no hyphens in the plates
Carbon effect lettering which was non irish type

Technically it shouldn't have, but sure...

vectra

challengemaster wrote: »

Technically it shouldn't have, but sure...

And just to add...There was NO €50 left in the ashtray during the test :pac:

Voodoomelon

Does anyone have a pic of a standard metal stamped plate from eireplates.com? I'm thinking of switching back, want to know what they look like in the flesh.

Pkiernan

These plates tend to be found on cars driven by these guys:

vectra

Pkiernan wrote: »

These plates tend to be found on cars driven by these guys:

http://images.wikia.com/muppet/images/8/8b/Tms-muppets-cast.jpg

Are you trying to imply that every car driver in Germany is a muppet?

si_guru

If anyone in Tralee/Kerry area wants stamped "irish" plates - there is great place up by the FAS office... name escapes me, it on the left after FAS.

Made while you wait - tenner each (I think).

R.O.R

I think they look good on the E39 M5 that lives down the road from me, with the Munchen plate surrounds too. Most other cars? Not so much.

I'm not really a fan of the pressed metal plates, mainly because they tend to have sharp edges which can be a right pain when you are trying to slide them in to plate surrounds.

A lot of rental cars have pressed metal plates (for some unknown reason), and the Audi Centre Ballsbridge supply cars with pressed metal plates.

listermint

Ive got pressed metal plates with IRL , Baile Atha Cliath, Hyphen's and Germon Font. The only font change is the Zero.

They are more visible than any font to Speed Cameras because it is intrinsically German to do so. So thats not the reason people get them.

My plates also have a munchen surround in black. They suit the car as it is a German M3.

Do i give a flying F* what other drivers think of the plates ?

No, because its my car and im the one driving it. You dont see me giving out about your crappy dealer stickers all over the back windscreen. oh wait...

Marlow

Delancey wrote: »

Does the German Font ' fool ' GATSO Vans / Toll Cameras ?

No. The german font was designed with recognition in mind. It's the easiest font to process for gatso vans and toll cameras.

Richard wrote: »

I'm pretty sure Ireland has. I remember re-registering a car and getting a leaflet with the regulations describing the font, spacing and the fact that the EU stars, IRL, and the county name in Irish had to appear.

The spacing and size are defined in the statue. The font is not specified, only that it has to be plain. So no 3D, handwriting, etc. Once spaced and sized correctly, with all the elements (IRL logo, irish county name), german font plates are fully legal.

/M

L-M

I have them on mine, and most cars I've owned. They're a bigger, clearer font, they're not illegal and I like them!

The same way that I'd have a Californian style plate if we could get away with it!

How come we never see threads about the other crap plates that people have with their name in the back ground, or "Liverpool" with a red and black lined font over it that are impossible to see???

/thread

TomMc

Marlow wrote: »

No. The german font was designed with recognition in mind. It's the easiest font to process for gatso vans and toll cameras.

Yes and no, primarily to stop counterfeiting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FE-Schrift

Anyway, they look more authentic on a German registered Ford than an Irish registered BMW, why? because they are.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion and have different tastes, but where German plates on Irish cars are concerned, the phrase familiarity breeds contempt springs to mind.

Marlow

TomMc wrote: »

Yes and no, primarily to stop counterfeiting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FE-Schrift

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.

Why NO ? Read the article you referred to and you'll see, that what I stated is correct.

Counterfeiting protection was only archivable with a combination of the font and the background plate being reflective, which isn't always the case in Ireland.

/M

TomMc

If you read the article in full rather than just a small section of it, you will see that the primary function was to prevent manipulation of letters/numbers (to the naked eye) and as a follow on from this for improved number plate recognition (secondary).

Marlow

TomMc wrote: »

If you read the article in full rather than just a small section of it, you will see that the primary function was to prevent manipulation of letters/numbers (to the naked eye) and as a follow on from this for improved number plate recognition (secondary).

What is on wikipedia depends on who has written it and isn't an official document. What is primary and secondary here is not of the matter. Both were key elements in the design of the german font/FE-Schrift.

What's your point ? There was no "No" to what I stated. I didn't state the matter of counterfeiting protection, because it's not the case on irish manufactured plates with FE-Schrift, as many of them miss the reflecting background. All that leaves you with is a number plate, that has a font designed for better machine reading.

/M

TomMc

"It is a widely used standard typeface for traffic, administration and business applications. In particular, DIN 1451 is the typeface commonly used on road and railway signage in Germany and a number of other countries. It was also used for many years on German car number plates, until it was replaced there in November 2000 by FE-Schrift, a font especially designed for number plates that is optimized for better tamper resistance and easier automatic character recognition".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIN_1451

I wasn't saying no it wasn't at all, I'm merely stating that "yes" it was used for better number plate recognition, but "no" that was not the primary reason it was designed for. Preventing counterfeiting when reading a plate manually through (eye recognition) was. Hence various letters/digits are not just spaced differently but have parts added or omitted.

----

In the UK, ANPR systems can read registration plates with a very plain (BS standard) typeface and characters. Some of the characters on German plates are somewhat quirky so cannot be manipulated to look like another so easily.

Anyway, the clue is in the name - Fälschungserschwerende Schrift (falsification-hindering typeface) or FE-Schrift not Automatische Kennzeichenerkennung.

If you read this article you will see that the currently used font was actually designed in the very late 70's, not the mid 90's when it came into usage first or more widely post 2000 across Germany. ANPR technology was by and large, still in the development stage.

http://www.fsd.it/usefuldesign/german_plates_font.htm

Amtmann

Are these German-style plates easily read by the M50 toll and all other Irish motorway tolls?

Quazzie

I drive a Honda, Do you think it would look ok on my car or are they only suited to German cars?

KTRIC

Might dig out the actual German plates I have at home and stick them on my bike

R.O.R

Quazzie wrote: »

I drive a Honda, Do you think it would look ok on my car or are they only suited to German cars?

Hmmmmm

voxpop

Quazzie wrote: »

I drive a Honda, Do you think it would look ok on my car or are they only suited to German cars?

Marlow

Tremelo wrote: »

Are these German-style plates easily read by the M50 toll and all other Irish motorway tolls?

This has already been answered above. Yes, they are easily read by the tolls. Actually easier than any other numberplate.

/M