

The Case for Better Designed License Plates - KeenanSteel
http://www.obrella.com/news/2014/better-designed-license-plates/

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jawns
Pop quiz: What's the most important feature of a license plate, by far?

1) ṚЁÄḊÄḄЇḶЇṪŸ

2) ɌɆȺĐȺɃƗŁƗŦɎ

3) READABILITY

Hmm, kind of hard to read options 1 and 2 because there are a bunch of
distracting elements over or near the text, huh?

As far as readability goes, these designs are sore on the eyes. The
backgrounds need to be significantly toned down to keep from overwhelming the
tag numbers.

Right now, for instance, Abraham Lincoln's giant head is competing with the
tag number for my attention, and if the plate is on a vehicle that's fleeing
the scene of a crime, that's not going to help me discern the most important
information on the plate.

I do, however, like the idea of trying to come up with some design uniformity
across all 50 states (e.g. using the same fonts for the same elements, and
using the same layout).

I know it's probably too much to ask to have boring plain text on a boring
plain, high-contrast background -- which would be the easiest to read.

But there are some easy ways to tone down the busy-ness. Two suggestions
immediately come to mind:

Make the tags letters/numbers completely opaque, rather than translucent.

And try to keep the most detailed portions of the background images away from
the center (as with the Arizona plate).

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ChuckMcM
I think the most important feature is that it be difficult to decode
algorithmically :-)

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jonahrd
I thought the author might mention some reasons why the current designs were
lacking, and give some possible solutions that would improve the license
plates in some measurable way. But it seems that he simply has a preference
for his own design that features transparent font on two-color "simple"
pictures. Why does the public need to "wake up" and realize that we are living
in a world of awful license plate design if the solution just involves making
each state conform to some arbitraty template?

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lnanek2
I don't really understand why these would be better. Looking at his proposed
New York one and the real New York one, the real one is clearly easier to
read. Adding a background image that overlays the text makes it harder to read
the text, I don't think it is an improvement. I don't really care how pretty
the plates are, I care that if someone hits me and tries to drive off as many
people as possible have a chance of reading the plate. This whole post kind of
sounds like someone redesigning road signs to look pretty instead of meeting
the key requirements like being able to read them at speed.

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JshWright
I also don't see how that "stays true to the identity of the state".

I assume the red color it evoking the 'Big Apple' nickname for New York City.
That, plus the skyline overlay makes it clear that this is a "New York City"
license plate, not a New York State license plate (despite the fact that ~85%
of vehicles registered in the state are registered outside NYC)

EDIT: I'm not currently able to reply to the child comments (which seems odd,
as they're not that deep...), but it does appear I did misremember slightly.
The actual percentage is closer to 80%.

10.9 million vehicles in total, 2 million in NYC.

[http://dmv.ny.gov/statistic/2013reginforce.pdf](http://dmv.ny.gov/statistic/2013reginforce.pdf)

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bhandziuk
That can't be true, can it? The population of the state ~19 million and the
population of NYC is ~8.5 million.

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bhandziuk
(I can't comment on child comments either) I didn't realize it was THAT
imbalanced.

Also, who are the two farm vehicles registered in NY county?

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kingmanaz
Personally, I prefer the old single-color plates that went away around 10
years ago. Today there seems to be a push to logo-ize everything and the
results are tacky. A license plate serves to present a series of numbers to
law enforcement and fellow commuters, nothing more. Each state should pick a
distinct foreground and background color and leave it at that, IMHO.

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whistlecrackers
I typically don't think European things, but I think they got license plates
right. Black on white. Very small designation of the origin.

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jonah
What is better about these? More "modern" maybe? What about functional
improvements? What's the reasoning behind the design decisions?

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jonahrd
Haha, a fellow jonah with the same complaints as me

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jtokoph
I find the color palate to be quite visually pleasing but unfortunately the
colors selected for each plate don't provide enough contrast.

Part of what makes the current plates look so 'poor' is the need for letters
and numbers to contrast with the background.

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pionar
One of the bad things about current plate designs that is not addressed by
this is readability from an OCR perspective.

Some legitimate (read: non-state spying, such as permitless parking) License
Plate Recognition (LPR) software/hardware uses need more legible plate
numbers/state info. It would be nice if these included a QR code containing
state and number info.

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drcoopster
Maybe I missed it, but no case was given.

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teacup50
These plates demonstrate a pretty myopic naive design view; Washington, for
instance, is a lot more than just the Seattle skyline.

The current Washington plates feature Mount Rainier:
[http://www.plateshack.com/y2k/Washington3/wa-1145wsp.jpg](http://www.plateshack.com/y2k/Washington3/wa-1145wsp.jpg)

How is this WA plate design better? Just because it's trendier in its
flattyness? It has limited appeal to anyone in the state outside of the
Seattle area AND it's harder to read.

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vacri
There is a slight irony in "the evergreen state" using red, white, and blue
for its numberplates, without so much as a hint of green to be seen...

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Fuzzwah
I personally think the current AZ plate template is superior to the one
offered by this article:

[http://www.plateshack.com/y2k/Arizona5/az2014baa2002.jpg](http://www.plateshack.com/y2k/Arizona5/az2014baa2002.jpg)

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kingmanaz
Arizonan here who can't stand the new plate (and who also doesn't care for the
plate in the article). The current plate's kitschy cactus-and-horizon drawing
fades into a blob when viewed from greater than ~4', i.e., the normal viewing
distance. The older maroon plate with the raised cactus symbol was far
superior, IMHO.

[http://www.15q.net/us1/az81a.jpg](http://www.15q.net/us1/az81a.jpg)

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Raphael
What does "ESTD" mean?

Why are the mottos sideways?

Why bother with the capital city?

Some Texans wouldn't appreciate a skull.

I prefer Mt. Rainier to Space Needle and friends.

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CocaKoala
I'm with you on the Washington plate. The Space Needle is emblematic of
Seattle, which is great for things that are for Seattle. But the Washington
license plate is for the entire state, and even though I grew up not too far
from Seattle, there's a lot more to the state than just one city. Mt. Rainier
is something that's emblematic of the entire state.

