Slab Serif began gaining traction in the industry. A few years on, the slab serif has become commonplace as emphasis for typographic data such as headings or as bold type within texts. Even those from typefoundries felt that it may be too much.įiggins continues development of slab-serif in which italics on capital letters were introduced in 1821 while further developments of the small letters have been introduced in 1825. Like many other revolutionary and unique typographies, the slab serif met disdain and callous remarks from critics. The capital letters may carry consistent modulations but with small letters, the modulations were varied, loosely based on the fat faces. The first iteration was in upper case letters only and the serifs are thick as the main letter strokes.īased on an 1823 specimen by Figgins, experts believed that slab serif was indeed based on fat faces. Based on an analysis by James Mosely, it wasn’t until Figgins’ first Egyptian printing type appeared that a true slab-serif typeface existed.
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The actual origins of this typeface are hard to determine but experts agree it came from signwriting. In the first few decades of the 19 th century, radical developments in typography would result to three prominent typeface varieties including sans serif, fat faces, and the slab serif. Slab serif carries a very prominent form: slab-like, bold, and square cut fonts. Today’s take on slab serif Defining the form Even if slab serif was a young innovation compared to other typefaces, it also is one of the constantly changing and innovating typefaces, adapting to consumer need and changes in aesthetics. Posters have to shout and billboards have to scream. Typeface was initially geared towards long stretches of texts like in newspapers and in books, but with the changes in innovation as well as increase in the prevalence of advertising the need for a typeface that shouts at the person and stands out amongst the crowd became essential. The radical advances in advertising strategies inspired this bold new typeface. The birthplace of Slab Serif was Britain in which print advertising was still very popular. It seemed like it was the most convenient term and because of its popularity, has become the nomenclature for the typeface. The term Egyptian was deemed by others as a misnomer, in which it was derived from the craze the country made after the 3 year expedition of Napoleon.
![slab serif typeface slab serif typeface](https://dab1nmslvvntp.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/slab-serif.jpg)
The early 1800 saw the birth of the Egyptian typeface, technically known as Slab serif. You can know more about Rockwell here.Slab Serif Fonts: Most Popular Typefaces, Best for Webfonts A typical slab serif font is Rockwell, which belongs to the Neo-grotesque slab serif, featuring serifs unbracketed and identical to the horizontal strokes of letters in weight. Though there are slight differences for different slab serif fonts, they all appear bold, eye-catching and they are most frequently seen in the large headlines, advertisements and logos. Generally, Clarendon fonts have some bracketing and some contrast in size in its serif Neo-grotesque fonts have no bracketing and have evenly weighted stems and serifs Italienne fonts have serifs that are heavier than the stems and Typewriter fonts has a fixed width for all letters. While most slab serif fonts have no bracket that connecting the strokes and the serifs, some do have.Īccording to the serif thickness and bracketing features, slab serif fonts can be categorized into four groups, namely, Clarendon, Neo-grotesque, Italienne and Typewriter. For slab serif fonts, serif terminals can be blunt, angular or rounded and also serif thickness in contrast to that of stems may vary for different fonts. Slab serif fonts are fonts with thick, block-like serifs.