Let me chime in with infos on french plates.
- FONT : there is actually no specific font for french license plates. It just has to respect a few dimensions and be sans serif. License plate manufacturers have usually their own font. This one is fairly common for both old and new types of plates, sadly it is not free :
http://www.leewardpro.com/articles/licplatefonts/font-numberplate-france.html
- DIMENSIONS : for cars, we have two main formats, a long one (which can be slightly smaller for the front), and a square one (which is only legal for the rear). Height x Width, in mm (with +/- 2mm tolerance), and there's a 5mm margin on each side where there shouldn't be any text or symbol, just background colors :
*smaller long (front only) : 100x455
*larger long (front and rear) : 110x520
*squared (rear only) : 200x275
- SYSTEMS :
* FNI (before 2009) : 0000 XX 00 (the figures before the letters can be less than four, the last two figures representing french department where the owner lives, if you moved to another region or sold the car to someone living elsewhere, the car would be issued a new plate number and new registration). Some characters and combinations of characters and numbers were taken out of the system, but it's too complicated to write them all there, as it can vary through time and regions.
* SIV (after 2009) : XX-000-XX (nothing here is related to the region, a car will keep the same plate number through its whole lifespan. FNI cars will receive a new SIV registration when sold or if the owner changes adress, even if it's still in the same region - although for a bit of time, only). WW-000-XX are temporary plates (generally used for cars going through importation process), and garages have W-000-XX plates they can put on any unregistered vehicle (only plates without four letters). I, O and U are forbidden because they look too much like 1, 0 and V, and SS series are out of the system as well, both at the begining or the end. Numbers start from 001, and there's always 3 figures.
- COLORS AND SYMBOLS :
* 1950 to 1992 : silver text on black background,older license plates from 1950 to 1992 were black with silver letters and lining around the plate. You can still have those for 30+ years old cars with a SIV number if they have a classic car registration (but police won't bother you if you have an old car with black plates with a regular registration).
* 1963 to 2004 : black letters, white background on front, yellow background on rear. Euroband (the blue part with the stars and country letter on the left side of many european plates) possible, but not mandatory (can have it on either none, just rear, or both plates). Very uncommon before the very late 80s / early 90s though.
* 2004 to 2007 : black letters, white background on front, yellow background on rear. Eurobands mandatory on both plates.
* 2007 to 2009 : black letters, white background on front, white or yellow background on rear. Eurobands mandatory on both plates.
* 2009 - today (SIV) : black letters, white background. Euroband on the left, similar band on the right with region logo on top and department number below (you can have whichever department you want, the logo being tied to it, and you can change whenever you want as it is not part of the registration. But you have to get the same on both front and rear plates, and are not allowed to put a sticker over it, be it custom or not. The number of regions have changed in 2016 though, so the logos you can order on your plates have changed, but the old ones are still legal)
- Official regulations about plate and font dimensions :
http://plaque.free.fr/jpgs/Code-de-la-Route_F_Taille-Plaques_Autos.jpg
- Right hand bands for regular SIV plates (pre 2016) :
https://quirouleenancienne.files.wo...ologuc3a9s-plaque-dimmatriculation.jpg?w=1400
- New region logos from 2016 (with all coresponding department numbers - some older ones are reused) :
https://www.cartegrise.com/blog/201...s-dimmatriculation-les-logos-siv-officialises
If you need more infos or want to know about special plates, let me know, I have to leave now so posting this as it is. I'll add some pictures later.