Button copy is a type of physical design for

road sign Traffic signs or road signs are signs erected at the side of or above roads to give instructions or provide information to road users. The earliest signs were simple wooden or stone milestones. Later, signs with directional arms were introduc ...

s in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Round plastic

retroreflective A retroreflector (sometimes called a retroflector or cataphote) is a device or surface that reflects light or other radiation back to its source with minimum scattering. This works at a wide range of angle of incidence, unlike a planar mirror, w ...

buttons made of transparent plastic are placed in rows following the contours of sign legend elements, usually painted white, such as letters, numbers, arrows, and borders. In daylight, the buttons visually blend with the white sign legend elements and so are minimally conspicuous. At night, light from each approaching vehicle's

headlamp A headlamp is a lamp attached to the front of a vehicle to illuminate the road ahead. Headlamps are also often called headlights, but in the most precise usage, ''headlamp'' is the term for the device itself and ''headlight'' is the term for t ...

s strikes the retroreflective buttons and is reflected back towards the eyes of the vehicle's driver. Thus the sign is made sufficiently conspicuous and legible for adequately fast and accurate recognition and interpretation by drivers. Button copy has been supplanted by a newer technology:

retroreflective sheeting Retroreflective sheeting is flexible Retroreflector, retroreflective material primarily used to increase the nighttime wikt:conspicuity, conspicuity of traffic signs, high-visibility clothing, and other items so they are safely and effectively vi ...

made by various manufacturers in numerous colors and grades. As state departments of transportation increasingly stopped specifying button copy signs in favor of signs made with sheeting, it became uneconomical to maintain production of the materials and supplies for making button copy signs. The last state to specify button copy signs was

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

, which switched to sheeting in 2000.Farewell to Button Copy
/ref> The advantage of button copy is durability, in that a well-made button copy sign has a service life of around 40 years. In contrast, signs made out of retroreflective sheeting are expected to last only around 15 years. However, at night, retroreflective sheeting is clearly visible and readable at much longer distances than button copy.

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* Road signs in the United States Obsolete technologies {{US-road-stub

See also

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External links