Highway signs are a critical part of the roadway infrastructure, providing important information to drivers to assist in navigation, identify potentially hazardous roadway locations, and to remind drivers of safe operating practices. Ensuring that signs have sufficient visibility to the driving public is a key undertaking by transportation agencies such as NYSDOT. In order to assist NYSDOT in evaluating and comparing different materials for photometric and visual performance, the present project was conducted to select and validate a visibility model for use as a basis for performance specifications, to develop a practical methodology for conducting field measurements of sign performance along roadways, and to develop practical tools to assist highway engineers in making informed quantitative decisions about the levels of performance provided by different materials. In addition to describing the methods for an approach to visual performance based specifications, a spreadsheet tool for calculating sign luminance and visibility was also developed.