Bilingual Design Guide
Welsh Language Commissioner Bilingual Design Guide, with Welsh Government communication and marketing guidelines.
The Bilingual Design Guide is the Welsh Language Commissioner's good practice guide to designing in Welsh and English, signage included. It is the design reference behind Wales's bilingual sign duties, with Welsh Government's own guidelines setting how its signs are laid out.
For signage and wayfinding
What it asks of your signs
- 01Welsh must be treated no less favourably than English in font, format, colour, size, clarity, prominence and quality. Equal size and weight is the starting point.
- 02Separate the languages clearly and consistently. The guide suggests black text for both with a tint behind one language, and notes colour reversal as an option on signs.
- 03Don't give one language an unusual or decorative typeface, and avoid using a different font style for each language: one version almost always ends up less legible.
- 04Allow for Welsh word lengths, digraphs (ch, dd, ff, ng, ll, ph, rh, th) and the circumflex when setting sign widths and letter spacing.
- 05Brief the designer with both languages from the start, use a professional translator and proofread both languages before anything goes to manufacture.
- 06On Welsh Government work, new, replacement and temporary signs must be bilingual, ideally on the same sign, with Welsh placed so it is likely to be read first.
What these documents are
The Welsh Language Commissioner published the Bilingual Design Guide in September 2014 to set out best practice for bilingual design for any organisation, whether or not it has statutory duties. It says it is not a statutory code of practice under the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011. Part 1 covers planning, translation, typesetting, language separation, colour, typefaces and layout formats; Part 2 applies them to visual identity, signage, stationery, forms, advertising and digital media.
Welsh Government's Welsh Language Standards: communication and marketing guidelines (first published March 2022, updated January 2025) bind its own communications and the agencies working for it. Its signage section covers exterior and interior signs, plaques and hoardings that promote a Welsh Government programme or funding. The Commissioner's newer guide for businesses, A sign of good business (2023), shows worked bilingual sign layouts.
What they ask of signage
The duty to provide bilingual signs comes from the Welsh Language Standards and each body's compliance notice. These guides tell you how to design them well. The core test is that both languages are equally easy to read, ideally within one eye line. Mixing the languages haphazardly across a scheme is the error the guide warns against most: pick one separation method and apply it everywhere.
For a government identity on signage, the Welsh Government brand and NHS Wales logos are already bilingual. Use supplied artwork, and treat the Welsh and English names as a single unit, as the guide asks for bilingual branding.
How Wales compares with Ireland and Scotland
In Ireland the Official Languages Acts and S.I. No. 391 of 2008 put Irish first, no smaller than English and never in italics, and the Government of Ireland identity sets Irish and English in Quadraat Bold and Regular. Wales asks for equal treatment and, on Welsh Government work, Welsh read first. In Scotland, Gaelic on public signs follows each body's Gaelic language plan under the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005.
Editions and history
Earlier guidance from the Welsh Language Board, Best Practice for Bilingual Signs, recommended Welsh to the left of or above English and ruled out italics or a smaller size for one language. The Commissioner's Bilingual Design Guide dates from September 2014. A sign of good business was added in 2023 for private businesses. Welsh Government's communication and marketing guidelines were first published on 15 March 2022 and last updated on 13 January 2025.
Sources checked
- welshlanguagecommissioner.wales/media/niknstqs/bilingual-design-guide-eng.pdf
- comisiynyddygymraeg.cymru/media/vptkg0px/canllaw-arwyddion.pdf
- gaidhlig-scot-prod.apsmos.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Best-practice-for-bilingual-signs.pdf
- gov.wales/welsh-language-standards-communication-and-marketing-guidelines-html
A summary in our own words, checked on 16 October 2026. It is not the document itself and not legal advice.
Equivalents and related
The same ground, elsewhere.
- Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011 and the Welsh Language Standards Regulations (No. 1 Regulations 2015 onwards)Wales
- NHS Corporate Identity Brand Guidelines (NHS Wales) and Publication Notice 20/01Wales
- Official Languages Act 2003 (as amended), with the Official Languages Act 2003 (Section 9) Regulations 2008 (S.I. No. 391 of 2008)Ireland
- Government of Ireland Unified Visual Identity Guidelines, Version 1.0Ireland
- Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005, as amended by the Scottish Languages Act 2025, and Bòrd na Gàidhlig statutory guidance on Gaelic language plansScotland
- HSE Signage ManualIreland
Working to Bilingual Design Guide on a live project?
Wayfinding design, compliance, manufacture and installation, with the signage certificates signed off by us.