The Underground Group, operators of the London underground rail network, needed a typeface for informational signs that would not be mistaken for advertising. At the same time – thus the conception of the responsible manager Frank Pick – the typeface should unify and strengthen the brand’s public image. With this purpose in mind, typeface designer Edward Johnston designed the Railway Type together with his erstwhile pupil Eric Gill around 1916. In 1979 it was modified. Distinguishing characteristics of the typeface include the circular O and the diagonally situated, rectangular points above lowercase letters such as i and j or punctuation marks like ! and ?. With its sweeping lowercase letters in the humanist tradition, it marks a departure from the more square forms of the sans-serif types of the 19th century.

Aside from signs and the map of London's tube system, Johnston’s Railway Type was also used for signs for the London Olympic and Paralympic summer games in 2012. It also gained popularity as the type for the overlays in the BBC TV series Sherlock (2010).