As mentioned earlier, license plates should only be printed in a single shade of black with the standard British Charles Wright font. This means that alternately colored characters with a colored pin strip are not allowed. In response to a petition to end the ban on 3D license plates, the government said: “The new UK standard for retro-reflective license plates does not indicate that license plates with raised signs, including 3D freezing and 4D license plates, are not allowed.” Vehicle owners are strongly advised to purchase license plates only from suppliers who can confirm that the license plates they provide comply with all legal requirements. Motorists must also refrain from displaying a license plate with a patterned background. The license plates at the front of the car should have a continuous white reflective background, while signs with a solid yellow background at the rear should be used. Tinted license plates use an extra layer of acrylic on the reflective surface of the license plate to create a dark effect. These license plates are illegal in the UK as they make it difficult to read and identify individual characters. Drivers showing these signs can expect to be stopped by police and fined up to £1,000. It should be noted that 4D license plates can be delivered with panels set to one of the different depths. We receive these questions on a daily basis and understand your concern about the legal aspects regarding your panels and the future of the custom plate industry. If your license plates have been approved for road traffic at the time of purchase, they are still legal, provided they display the BSAU code 145d on the license plate itself.
If you have a trailer, read inF291: License Plates and Trailer License Plates. Despite the changes, there is no complete ban on 3D license plates. Although the rules for the legibility of licence plates in the UK are quite strict and the rules have recently been tightened, 3D and 4D plate designs are still available, so many motorists will wonder if they are legal. The rules for license plates changed in September 2021, which means that all license plates with a 3D effect policy will be banned from that date, but there are some nuances in the rules. A true 3D/4D plate with yellow layer or laser-cut relief characters is legal as long as the characters have a single shade of black on all sides and the plate complies with all other regulations regarding font, size and spacing. The new licence plate rules require all new licence plates – whether attached to a new car or replace the licence plates of an old car – to comply with the UK standard BS AU 145e. Individual letters must be attached to the surface of the license plate and must not be removable. The lettering of the license plate must be printed in a single shade of black and must not be reflective. Indeed, under certain lighting conditions, the recording could be hidden. Again, drivers who show signs that are not in compliance with the law could face a fine of up to £1,000.
Essentially, all license plates must have the company information printed at the bottom of the sign with their zip code and BS145e code. However, it is necessary that there is a distance of 7 mm between the bottom of the registration number and the top of the company information and that the company information is between 3 mm and 10 mm high. This gives transparency about who made the license plates and that the company in question has collected all the information needed to make license plates, which helps stop the cloning of license plates! While 3D and 4D license plates have become a daily sight on UK roads, there is a lot of confusion as to their legality. Our guide aims to summarize what these license plates are and explain whether they are legal or not before deciding to display them on your car on a public road. Utopia Plates works closely with the DVLA RNPS enforcement team to ensure that we fully comply with all regulations regarding our operations and the products we manufacture, which is why we can safely claim that our products are legal on the road, and we stick to that – we are known to successfully defend our customers against failed fake TVs and misinformed police officers. The latest sheet metal manufacturing standard, introduced in 2021, aims to ensure that they remain in good condition after many years of exposure to road elements and conditions. At a glance, 3D license plates are very similar to the standard license plates seen on most cars on UK roads. On closer inspection, however, these license plates differ due to the markedly beveled font used for the recording lettering itself. This gives the visual impression that the text is in 3D, when in reality the letters and numbers remain flush with the surface of the license plate. The signs themselves are neither removable nor reflective and, if affixed after 1 September 2021, have a single uniform shade of black.
While 3D license plates simply use a modified font to achieve the 3D effect, “3D freeze” or 4D license plates contain embossed text that protrudes from the surface of the license plate. Individual letters are usually made of laser-cut acrylic or gel layers and tend to cost more than their 3D counterparts. No one wants to be arrested by the police for breaking the law in this regard, so let`s take a closer look at whether 3D and 4D license plates are legal in the UK. Many vehicles have these types of license plates attached. Many people will now have to change them or have them arrested by the police. In summary, 4D license plates and 3D gel license plates can be interpreted as still being approved for road traffic under the new 145e standard, provided that the right materials are used, the appropriate documentation is recorded, and the correct company information is printed at the bottom of the plate while maintaining the correct edges and spacing. As an additional security of a fine if you ever get arrested for your license plates, here at JDM Plates we offer a legality statement with all our license plates explaining all the laws we comply with while displaying our company information and the DVLA RNPS reference number. If you have a license plate created AFTER September 1, 2021, it will display the code BS145e and must comply with the new DVLA rules. The legislation on licence plates is available on the website gov.uk legislation relating to the Road Vehicles (Display of Registration Marks) Regulations 2001. The 2001 Regulations are the basic layer on which any amendment is referred.
This act explains all sizes, margins, font sizes and colors.