Beacon Slab

Its lowercase is tall: the x-height is 74.9% of the cap height, against a median of 69.6% for serif fonts, taller than 33 of the 39 other serif fonts. Ascenders on b, d, h, k and l rise 3.7% above the capitals, and descenders on g, j, p, q and y drop 26.4% of the cap height below the baseline, shallower than 28 of the 39 other serif fonts. Beacon Slab runs 17.3% wider than the median for serif fonts: an average lowercase letter, spacing included, is 100.8% as wide as the capitals are tall (an average capital, 112.4%). The o is wider than it is tall, 1.20 to 1, and W is the widest capital, at 1.32 times the width of H. Round letters overshoot: O rises 1.5% of the cap height above H and dips 1.5% below the baseline.

The letters stand upright, with no measurable slant. Vertical stems measure 21.4% of the cap height, heavier than 29 of the 35 other serif fonts. Ink covers 44.5% of each lowercase letter's box (its advance width by the cap height), darker than 33 of the 39 other serif fonts. Strokes change thickness with direction: the sides of o and O are 1.7 times as thick as their tops and bottoms.

Its 148 characters include 105 Latin letters, plus 43 figures, punctuation marks and symbols; 53 of the Latin letters are accented or special forms beyond A to Z. The word space measures 38.6% of the cap height, and the blank space either side of a lowercase letter takes up 9.8% of its width. Spacing is adjusted with 272 kerning pairs, more than 30 of the 39 other serif fonts. The tightest of them is VA, which closes up by 33.9% of the cap height. The figures have different widths, so columns of numbers set in Beacon Slab will not line up exactly.

10 other library fonts share Beacon Slab's underlying letter structure. Compared with Beacon Slab, Ranch Spur adds Tuscan spurs and has a 79% x-height. Heavy Slab Mono sets 15% narrower. Slime Slab adds paint drips and sets 8% narrower.