Monolith Slab

Its lowercase is tall: the x-height is 82.7% of the cap height, against a median of 69.6% for serif fonts, the tallest of all 40 serif fonts. Ascenders on b, d, h, k and l rise 3.3% above the capitals, and descenders on g, j, p, q and y drop 22.7% of the cap height below the baseline, shallower than 37 of the 39 other serif fonts. Monolith Slab runs 34% wider than the median for serif fonts: an average lowercase letter, spacing included, is 115.1% as wide as the capitals are tall (an average capital, 128.1%). The o is wider than it is tall, 1.28 to 1, and W is the widest capital, at 1.27 times the width of H. Round letters overshoot: O rises 1.1% of the cap height above H and dips 1.1% below the baseline.

The letters stand upright, with no measurable slant. Ink covers 51.7% of each lowercase letter's box (its advance width by the cap height), darker than 38 of the 39 other serif fonts. Strokes keep one thickness in every direction: the sides of o and O measure the same 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 42.3% of the cap height, and the blank space either side of a lowercase letter takes up 11.7% of its width. Spacing is adjusted with 146 kerning pairs, fewer than 20 of the 39 other serif fonts. The tightest of them is VA, which closes up by 30.3% of the cap height. The figures have different widths, so columns of numbers set in Monolith Slab will not line up exactly.

8 other library fonts share Monolith Slab's underlying letter structure. Compared with Monolith Slab, Frost Slab adds caps of snow, sets 22% narrower and puts down 23% less ink. Depot Slab Outline draws the letters as hollow outlines and puts down 64% less ink. Campus Varsity rings each letter with an outline and sets 14% narrower.