Personalised number plates are increasingly becoming popular in the United Kingdom. Many people like to have their first name, initials or something related to their work profession displayed on the plate.
Whilst you can choose the combination of numbers and letters for your personalised number plate, they must conform with the regulations and format prescribed by the DVLA, which is the organisation responsible for the registration and licensing of vehicles.
The new registration format for number plates was introduced by the DVLA in 2001. These revised regulations apply to all number plates of vehicles registered on or after September 1st 2001.
• All number plates must use a specific and simple typeface that makes the numbers on the plate easy to read by both humans and automatic recognition systems, which are increasingly being used by the police and other related agencies.
• All plate variants that are difficult to read, such as italic fonts and multiple strokes are prohibited with the exception of a 3D effect version of the typeface.
• Each character on the number plate must be 50mm wide and 79mm high, while each character stroke must be 14mm, except the letter I and number 1.
• The space between two characters must be 11mm and the space between the character groups must be 33mm apart.
The characters of the front number plate must be in black colour with a white background, while the rear plate characters must be in black with a yellow background.
Optionally, the number plate can display the British Union Flag, Scottish Flag, Welsh Flag, English Flag, or the Euro Flag.
