Creating Slanted N Numbers that Comply with FAA Regulations

This page discusses how the standard algorithm for slanting creates characters that do not comply with FAA regulations. We have a design tool that uses a proprietary slanting algorithm to create numbers that do comply. If you want to skip the discussion and go directly to creating your own custom FAA compliant registration numbers, here is a link to that tool

This discussion is part of a larger discussion about the regulations, here is a link to that page.

This animation shows the results of using the standard slanting algorithm. The red area shows where the width of the stroke does not comply with the regulations. Click on the slider to take control of the animation.

Below we show the measurements of various 12" high characters. The first character shows the measurements of an unslanted 12" high character that complies with the regulations.

The standard algorithm for slanting is called a shear transformation. The second character shows what happens if one takes the compliant character and slants it using the shear transformation. One can see that the 2" strokes are reduced in width and no longer comply with the regulations.

The third character shows a character that has been slanted with our proprietary algorithm. There is no standard algorithm for slanting that maintains the stroke. Any other vendor who does slanting must adjust the stroke manually. It is a time consuming process. We believe most vendors don't bother to take the time to make these adjustments.

We created the design tool to allow us to create numbers that comply with the regulations at almost any degree of slant. This gives our customers the greatest flexibility in the industry when creating custom numbers. As far as we know, no other company in our industry has this capability.