Comparison of European road signs

• Warning signs in Ireland are yellow and diamond-shaped (as in the Americas, Australasia, and some east Asian countries), and thus differ from the white or yellow, red-bordered, triangular signs found in the rest of Europe.
• The design of individual pictograms (tunnel, pedestrian, car, etc.), while broadly similar, often varies in detail from country to country.
• Type of arrows may be different.
• Fonts of written words

• Sometimes similar signs have minor differences in meanings, following the local traffic codes.
• All European countries use the metric system (distances in kilometres or metres; speeds in kilometres per hour; heights, widths and lengths in metres; weights in tonnes) with the exception of the United Kingdom, where distances and speeds are still indicated in imperial measurements (miles or yards and miles per hour). Since 2016, on width and height limit signs both metric and imperial measurements are used (metres and feet & inches), however older signs still show imperial-only measurements . Since 2011, weight limit signs use metric tonnes with a lower case "t", although some older signs still use the imperial long ton indicated by either an upper case "T" or simply the word "ton".

• Longitudinal lines (lanes and margins) and symbols on the carriageway are always white (but in Norway a yellow line separates two-way traffic and in Ireland edge lines are yellow). Temporary markings are yellow in Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain, but red/orange in Switzerland and Russia, and white in the United Kingdom.
• A stop line is always represented by a white thick traversal continuous line, but a give way line may be represented by a white thick dashed line as rectangles (Germany, France, Spain) or by a double-dashed line (United Kingdom) or by a white line of triangles (Austria, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, and Switzerland).
• A disc (time-limited) parking place is identified by white lines in Germany and by blue lines in the Netherlands, France, Spain, and Switzerland. A chargeable parking place is identified by white lines in Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Switzerland and by blue lines in Italy and Spain. A parking place reserved for disabled people is bordered in white in Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom; in yellow in Italy and Switzerland; and in blue in France. Other reserved parking places (bus, taxis) are bordered with yellow lines in Italy, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, but with white lines in Germany.
• The prohibition of roadside parking can be indicated by a yellow continuous line (Austria, Spain, the Republic of Ireland, and the United Kingdom), by a yellow dashed line (the Netherlands and France), by a yellow dashed line with X's (Switzerland), a white continuous line (Italy), or else by black-and-white (the Netherlands) or a black-and-yellow (the Netherlands and Italy) kerb markings. Only in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland does a double yellow line (as well as a white zig-zag line in the vicinity of pedestrian crossings) mean "no parking at any time".
• The prohibition of stopping / waiting is indicated in the Netherlands, France and Switzerland by a yellow continuous line, and in (certain cities of) the United Kingdom by a red continuous line (with double red lines extending the meaning to "no stopping at any time). In the United Kingdom, a yellow zig-zag line near hospitals, police stations, and schools means "no stopping".

A sign with the use of Transport font in Icelandic

• Albania and Italy use the Alfabeto normale typeface (with the narrow variant Alfabeto stretto), a heavier version of the British Transport typeface.
  • Albania has recently started using Arial Narrow Bold typeface.
• Austria and Slovakia use the TERN typeface. In the past, Austria used the Austria Mittelschrift and Engschrift typefaces until 2010. Slovakia used the Universal Grotesk typeface until 2014.
• Belarus, Lithuania, Russia and Ukraine use typefaces based on one specified in a Soviet standard ГОСТ 10807–78. In Belarus, the according standard is СТБ 1140–99. In Ukraine, it is ДСТУ 4100–2002. In Russia, it is ГОСТ Р 52290–2004.
• Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Luxembourg, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Slovenia, and Serbia use the SNV typeface. Switzerland used this typeface until 2003.
• Bosnia and Herzegovina uses Verdana typeface in mixture with SNV typeface.
• Cyprus, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Turkey, Portugal, and the United Kingdom use the Transport typeface. (Motorway typeface is used on United Kingdom and Ireland motorways)
• Denmark uses the Dansk Vejtavleskrift typeface. The typeface is derived from the British Transport typeface.
• Estonia, North Macedonia, Slovenia, Turkey and Ukraine use the Arial Bold in mixture with other typefaces.
• Finland uses a typeface developed in the 1960s by the former national board of roads and waterways.[2]
• France uses the Caractères typeface.
• Germany, Czech Republic and Latvia use the DIN 1451 typeface.
• Greece used a modified version of the British Transport typeface and, today, uses a modified version of DIN 1451.
• Hungary does not use a defined typeface as the letters are defined one-by-one in the national regulation. The typeface resembles the DIN 1451 typeface closely.[3]
  • Hungary has recently started using modified version of Verdana typeface.
• Luxembourg uses Arial (Bold), Caractères Italic, DIN 1451, and the SNV typefaces, often inconsistently.
• The Netherlands uses typefaces derived from FHWA typeface: ANWB/RWS Cc (narrow), Dd (medium) and Ee (wide).
• Norway uses the Trafikkalfabetet typeface.
• Poland does not use a defined typeface as the letters are defined one-by-one in the national regulation.[4] There are three typefaces resembling the defined one, with two of them distributed as non-commercial freeware – Drogowskaz and Tablica drogowa typefaces. The third one, fully compliant with the regulation is available only for road signs making companies.
• Spain used two typefaces in the past: Autopista (derived from FHWA series E modified) for motorways and Carretera Convencional (also known as CCRIGE or Traffic Type Spain D)[5] for other situations. The typeface Carretera Convencional is derived from the British Transport typeface, and is almost identical to the Italian Alfabeto Normale. Since 2014, all new signs use Carretera Convencional regardless of the status of the road.
• Sweden uses the Tratex typeface.
• Switzerland uses the ASTRA-Frutiger typeface since 2003.
• Turkey and Ukraine use the FHWA typeface.

In Albania, Andorra, Belarus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Monaco, Russia, San Marino, Sweden, and Ukraine, destinations on direction signs are written in capital letters. In Ireland, they are written in capital letters in English and in lowercase letters in Irish. In Austria, Germany, Greece, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Switzerland both capital and lowercase are used. In Spain, destinations reached by motorway are written in capital and lowercase, while those reached by other roads are written in capital letters. In the United Kingdom and Portugal, regional destinations names and cardinal directions are written in capital letters, while the remaining destinations names are written in capital and lower case.