One major requirement for UK drivers to get their cars running on the road is to have a valid set of number plates for their vehicles. The standard number plate was introduced by the UK government in 2001, though some drivers found it to be dull with just flat letters and numbers printed on it.
This became a business opportunity for some, with 3D and 4D number plates being sold on the market as an alternative to the standard ones that dealerships and suppliers provide. Their main difference with standard plates is that both 3D and 4D plates have raised characters. This brings depth to the plates, providing them with a more premium appearance than the standard ones.
There are differences between 3D and 4D plates, with the key ones being how they look and how they are made. 3D characters are more rounded and less raised, giving 3D plates an understated look. They are also easier and faster to manufacture than 4D plates, making 3D plates a cheaper option. Compared to 3D, 4D characters are more rectangular and more raised.
3D plates are made from acrylic with individual raised characters. The raised letters and numbers are made from polyurethane and are placed on the acrylic plate by hand. An aligner bar is utilized to create perfect spacing for the rounded raised characters with a wet, gel-like look.
Just like 3D plates, 4D plates are also made from acrylic. The main difference, though, is that instead of using polyurethane characters, 4D plates use laser-cut characters made from an acrylic sheet. This method allows the characters to stand out more by being thicker and more rectangular.
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However, there is bad news for drivers with 3D and 4D plates. New rules in the British Standard for Retroreflective Number Plates made the usage of both 3D and 4D plates more problematic for owners. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) set out many criteria for number plates in the UK to meet.
According to the DVLA, number plates must be made from a reflective material and display black characters on a white background at the front and black characters on a yellow background at the rear. They also must be marked to show who supplied the number plate and must not have a background pattern. UK number plates must also be marked with a British Standard number, which is 'BS AU 145e' for plates fitted after September 1, 2021.
The DVLA also imposed strict rules on the size and shape of the characters on a number plate. They must now be printed in Charles Wright font, with characters 79-mm in height, 50-mm in width, and with a space of 11-mm between them.
The DVLA also states that drivers can choose to have what it describes as "3D (raised) characters" on their number plates. The rules are more complex, though, with Sergeant Dan Pascoe from Surrey Road Policing Unit saying that although there is no law against a number plate having raised characters in itself, the lettering cannot stick out so much as to obscure the registration from being legible from a certain angle.
This has led to a grey area with police stopping vehicles with 3D and 4D plates. The safe thing for drivers is to go with the standard 2D number plates.
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