Typefaces on Ordnance Survey 1:50K and 1:25K maps
Great Britain 1:50 000 Scale Colour Raster Mapping Extracts © Crown copyright Ordnance Survey. All Rights Reserved. Educational licence 100045616.
Contents
- Introduction
- Placenames and land features
- District and parish names
- Water features, blue letters
- Antiquities
- Danger area, red lettering
- Road numbers and services
- Names run along features and routes
- Large features
- Margins of paper map
- Capital I, small L, number 1
- 1st Series 1:50,000 and 7th Series 1" to 1 mile maps
- OS Vector Map typefaces
Introduction
Most names on Ordnance Survey (OS) Landranger 1:50,000 (50K) scale map are in Univers typeface, most names on OS Explorer 1:25,000 (25K) scale map are in Gill Sans.



My basic source describing typefaces on Ordnance Survey maps in Gill Sans typefaces on OS maps

Most examples displayed in this article are from the Landranger 1:50,000 scale map Second series. The 1km square grid reference is shown as a link with each map extract, click it to open the Geograph page for the square, click map on that to show current OS maps at other scales; the page also has links to other mapping. There are also a few extracts from Explorer 1:25,000 scale maps to show differences.
Placenames and land features
Towns are in Univers capitals, size increasing with population; village names and parts of towns have lower case. For natural features type size increases with extent, some are in Gill Sans.SE3332 LEEDS 22point capitals





Some 6 point and 8 point words are in a different typeface, note curly tail on Q in the next three examples. This typeface also has a hooked tail on the lower-case letter L, see Quixhill in third example:
NN8122 curly Quoig
SM9637 curly Quay
SK1041 curly Q, hooked small L
District and parish names
SP0398. On 50K administrative district name is in italic capitals. In this example the placename is adjacent in 18 point capitals.
On 25K, district name is shown in grey capitals.

On 25K Civil Parish name (in England) is shown in grey capitals, stroke width of letters less than that for district name.

Water features, blue letters



Blue letters are also used for inland lakes, ocean bays and channels, type size varying with extent of feature.
As for 6pt and 8pt place and feature names, some watercourse names are in a typeface with a curly tail Q, here in Quarters,
TL9911
Antiquities
Roman antiquities and sites in capitals, a different sans serif typeface from the Univers used for most names, but mainly looking similar. Pre- and post-Roman antiquities are in a Gothic typeface
TURRET is Roman, Mare & foal in Gothic are pre-Roman standing stones
Danger area, red lettering

Coastal footpaths which can be dangerous through tide or mud may have red warning notes on maps, for example around SD4075 Morecambe Bay
Road numbers and services
Most road numbers and service area names are the same colour as the road, but brown B-roads have red numbers (example see SO9335 Kinsham above).Names run along features and routes
SO7642 shows the HILLS of MALVERN HILLS along the crest

Large features
On 50K names of a large feature like a peninsula, island or range of hills is spread out along the feature.

On 25K a large feature name is compact and generally on a horizontal line rather than along the feature

Margins of paper map
County names are in the margin of paper maps, but usually not within the map area.Some detached areas have county names on map, e.g. island of Inchmarnock at NS0258.
Administrative area names are shown in the margin; the subdivisions of countries have changed several times so what is shown depends on revision date.
Names and destinations of roads and routes are shown in the margin, also some features like Cotswold Hills or North Sea. The continuations of names of large features are in the margin, for example Strathmore has ATH on map 54 around NO4254, the STR and MORE in margins.
Capital I, small L, number 1
Capital I on map is a vertical stroke, small L is sometimes the same, sometimes has a curved foot, number 1 has a horizontal stroke at the top."Iosal" has capital I and lower-case l with curved foot. In top left of map extract, "Eilian" has a straight lower-case l. The spot height "71" on Eilian Ard has a serif at the top of the number 1.
1st Series 1:50,000 and 7th Series 1" to 1 mile maps
The type sizes on Second Series are similar to the hierarchy of typefaces on 1" to 1 mile maps, also used on 1:50,000 1st Series. Again see Gill Sans typefaces on OS maps
This includes a table of OS 7th Series 1" to 1 mile map typefaces which is also in "Ordnance Survey Maps - a Descriptive Manual" by J B Harley (Ordnance Survey, Southampton, 1975). This shows typeface for towns increasing in size for populations under 10 thousand, then over 10, 30, 100, 200 and 500 thousand. The town examples are Leeds at SP0398, Cardiff ST2278, Brighton TQ3203, Caerphilly ST1787, Penarth ST1970, and Penistone SE2303. Other places include Rhigos SN9205, Harston SK8331, Coity SS9281, sizes down to the (rems of) for example at TL7280 .
OS Vector Map typefaces
A note about recent larger scale digital mapping. Description and access see OS Data Hub

Great Britain 1:50 000 Scale Colour Raster Mapping Extracts © Crown copyright Ordnance Survey. All Rights Reserved. Educational licence 100045616.