I didn’t download in time and the link EXPIRED. Help!

No problem! Just forward me your receipt email (to bzotto at Gmail dot com) and I’ll sort you out.

Why “Fog City Gothic”?

The signage that the font is based on comes from a very specific midcentury moment in San Francisco. Fog City is, of course, a longstanding (and somewhat out of fashion) nickname for our jewel on the bay. I love how it calls up images of swirling summer chilly evenings, men in fedoras scurrying by to catch their cable car.

Gothic is an older typographic synonym of sans-serif. The Federal Highway Administration’s standard signage typeface is referred to as “Highway Gothic,” and I liked making the nod to the family history there. It also evokes the other kind of gothic— American gothic, southern gothic… a noir turn in a midcentury city.

Can I use these fonts on my Mac/PC?

Yep! These font files are designed for use on Mac and Windows, and once installed should be available for selection anywhere you are normally able to select a font.

Once you download the ZIP file, inside it you’ll find one or two “OTF” files. These are the font files. Double click to start the installation process.

I’ve been asked if these are “safe” to install, and they definitely are. Fonts are not programs or apps; they are just data files containing the graphics data to draw the letters.

Can I install these on my phone/tablet?

These are “desktop” fonts, designed for use on Mac and Windows computers. Custom OpenType fonts cannot currently be installed directly on iPhone/iPad devices. If you have an Android device, you may be able to use them depending on the version. (But I can’t help you much further with that, unfortunately.)

Can i use thesE fonts for <PURPOSE X>?

When you purchase a font license through this site, you’re buying a desktop license (text is here), which is the standard thing for using in documents or design programs, etc. It is not a license for use as a web-font, a “server license”, or for inclusion in or bundling with apps or games. But if you require any of those uses, or have any other special situations or needs please don’t hesitate to drop me a note and we will figure something out.

If everything above is gibberish, then you almost certainly don’t need anything special! :)

Will you add more punctuation, accents, lower case letters?

Fog City Gothic is currently an all-caps English font with digits and a handful of punctuation characters, largely derived from historic sign imagery.

I am hoping to add the authentic narrower width, as well as extend it to further punctuation characters, and possibly some accented characters.

There are no plans to add lowercase characters, since those would have to be wholly imagined.

WHERE can i get one of those cool original street signs??

For a long time, the city sold off the white enameled signs (produced 1940s-1970) at the excellent Cable Car Museum in Nob Hill, through their gift shop, as the signs were decommissioned from use. You can check with them to see what they still have in stock.

To the best of my knowledge, the more recent aluminum signs (1970-present) are not officially sold to the public when they go out of service; they get reused or recycled by the SFMTA.

Signs of all eras do turn up from time to time on eBay and in vintage shops in and around the city. (Try Stuff on Valencia, for one).

I have another question, comment or concern.

Sure thing! Drop me a line at bzotto at Gmail dot com and we’ll sort it out.