Caractères

Caractères (French for characters) is a name of a sans-serif typeface family for road signs in France. There are four variants: L1, L2, L4 and L5. Caracteres L1 is the bold variant, usually a black typeface on white background; used on road signs, which hint at nearer places, and uppercase only. L2 is the medium variant which is a white typeface on green background for Routes Nationales or blue backgrounds for Autoroutes; used on road signs which hint at distant places, and also uppercase only. L4 is the italic variant, which is like the L1 variant, is also a black typeface on white background, used on road signs inside cities to hint at near places and public facilities, both uppercase and lowercase. L5 is an upright companion to the L4 font, used for historical monuments and others places of interest.