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FE-Schrift – forgery-impeding typeface

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Re: FE-Schrift – forgery-impeding typeface

#21

Post by 542458 »

lloydde wrote: post #20
dv_says wrote: post #10

A similar concept is found in Chinese writing. Numbers are written using relatively few strokes, making it easy to change a "one" into a "two." 1: 一 2: 二 3: 三 4: 四 5: 五 6: 六 7: 七 8: 八 9: 九 10: 十 For financial documents, a more complicated form of symbols is used: 1: 壹 2: 貳 3: 參 4: 肆 5: 伍 6: 陸 7: 柒 8: 捌 9: 玖 10: 拾

Other than the one to two transformation, are there others? Was the formal system a response to these problems or how it has always been done?

Well, just look at the symbols in his comment. 2 into 3, 4 or 5 is pretty easy looking, as is 1 into 10, 7 or 8. I'm sure you could probably spot more.

Re: FE-Schrift – forgery-impeding typeface

#22

Post by Pamar »

dv_says wrote: post #10

A similar concept is found in Chinese writing. Numbers are written using relatively few strokes, making it easy to change a "one" into a "two." 1: 一 2: 二 3: 三 4: 四 5: 五 6: 六 7: 七 8: 八 9: 九 10: 十 For financial documents, a more complicated form of symbols is used: 1: 壹 2: 貳 3: 參 4: 肆 5: 伍 6: 陸 7: 柒 8: 捌 9: 玖 10: 拾

Very interesting, thanks - does it apply to Japanese, too?

Re: FE-Schrift – forgery-impeding typeface

#23

Post by ianbooker »

MichaelGG wrote: post #18
gayprogrammer wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes the severity of a crime outweighs the frequency. It may be worth preventing any forgery since, when it does happen, the effects are bad.

Are license plates that hard to forge? How much work is it to stamp one? (Not to mention that you can get away with printing plates even on paper. A buddy was driving his car intercountry but didn't have his official plate, just the temp ones. Border agents were particular about that part. A bit of Photoshop and applying a bit of dust and no problems at all during a trip spanning 3 countries.)

You can actually just buy one for 12 euros, with any combination you like. The stamp, at least in Germany, seems to be the harder thing. It is more common to steal a plate and punch them out.

When you think about it, although the stamps are not that hard to fake, stealing a number plate is a matter of a second. You just clip it out of a plastic frame.

Source: My number plate was stolen in Germany last year.

Re: FE-Schrift – forgery-impeding typeface

#24

Post by ygra »

lloydde wrote: post #20
dv_says wrote: post #10

A similar concept is found in Chinese writing. Numbers are written using relatively few strokes, making it easy to change a "one" into a "two." 1: 一 2: 二 3: 三 4: 四 5: 五 6: 六 7: 七 8: 八 9: 九 10: 十 For financial documents, a more complicated form of symbols is used: 1: 壹 2: 貳 3: 參 4: 肆 5: 伍 6: 陸 7: 柒 8: 捌 9: 玖 10: 拾

Other than the one to two transformation, are there others? Was the formal system a response to these problems or how it has always been done?

The more formal number ideographs are the original ones, the simpler ones were simplified so numbers aren't as awkward to use.

You can also easily change a one into a ten, for example. Note also that it's not exactly a positional number system like Arabic. E.g. the number 123 would be written 1 hundred 2 ten 3. IIRC you can also easily change a ten into a hundred or thousand, so for larger values with a few zeroes in between you could shift a meaningful place into the zeroes to the left sometimes.

Re: FE-Schrift – forgery-impeding typeface

#25

Post by weinzierl »

Semiapies wrote: post #2

It's an interesting design, but I find myself wondering how often license-plate forgery happened.

   Whilst the DIN typeface was using a proportional font, 
   the FE-Schrift is a monospaced font (with different 
   spacing for letters and numbers) for improved machine 
   readability.
The German version of the Wikipedia article says more clearly that (despite the name: FE = hindering falsification) machine readability was the other important reason for the design and introduction of the typeface.

Re: FE-Schrift – forgery-impeding typeface

#26

Post by mpclark »

Semiapies wrote: post #2

It's an interesting design, but I find myself wondering how often license-plate forgery happened.

I believe it is a problem here in the UK, where one can expect to be ANPRed several times on any journey that takes one out of town. A little bit of black tape can turn a six into an eight and make one anonymous, or make a stolen car appear legit.

Re: FE-Schrift – forgery-impeding typeface

#27

Post by mrob »

Pamar wrote: post #22
dv_says wrote: post #10

A similar concept is found in Chinese writing. Numbers are written using relatively few strokes, making it easy to change a "one" into a "two." 1: 一 2: 二 3: 三 4: 四 5: 五 6: 六 7: 七 8: 八 9: 九 10: 十 For financial documents, a more complicated form of symbols is used: 1: 壹 2: 貳 3: 參 4: 肆 5: 伍 6: 陸 7: 柒 8: 捌 9: 玖 10: 拾

Very interesting, thanks - does it apply to Japanese, too?

Yes, with very similar characters. Although in practice only those actually needed to resist forgery are commonly used: 1: 壱 2: 弐 3: 参 10: 拾

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_numerals#Formal_numbe...

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