Comparison of European road signs

European traffic signs present relevant differences between countries despite an apparent uniformity and standardisation. Most European countries refer to the 1968 Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals—it has been adopted by Albania, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Montenegro, the Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and the United Kingdom. The convention has not been adopted by Ireland, Moldova and Spain.
Differences between European traffic signs.
The main differences relate to
Different typefaces in texts.
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 all-capital letters in English and in mixed-case 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 lowercase.
Table of traffic signs comparison.
Built-up area limits.
Under the Vienna Convention the begin and end built-up area signs imply a change between built-up area and rural traffic rules including speed limit. In many European Countries the dark background with light coloured text version of the sign is intended for information only. Poland uses white text on a green background (E-17a/E18a) to show the political boundary of a place as information and uses the black on white pictogram version (D-42/D-43) to designate the change of traffic rules.