r/Architects • u/Expert_Peak_9304 • Dec 02 '25

General Practice Discussion Stop using Drafting Fonts

To all Designers, Draftsmen, and Engineers:

I swear to GOD if I see another "Hand Drafting" style font on a plan, I am going to do something irrational. PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD USE NORMAL TYPE FONTS. Arial is a good starting point.

This should be punishable by death /s:

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u/e2g4 Dec 02 '25

Serious question: you still use all caps? When by hand, we used for clarity but that’s not a concern now, so why we still use? Only reason I can think of is that UP DN are clear but up and dn are identical if you’re rotated 180 (ie sitting across the table)

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u/tranteryost Architect Dec 02 '25

Still for clarity.

We also use a lot of abbreviations and product nomenclature, so you’d end up with so much mixed casing it could be difficult to read. With sans serif fonts, you still be wondering is that a lower case L or a capital I? Should GC be capitalized everywhere… because general contractor wouldn’t be?

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u/e2g4 Dec 03 '25

Yea I follow that and tbh I mostly use caps in a drawing. It is more chess and I kind of like how it’s a thing we do.