Orbital Sans

Its lowercase is tall: the x-height is 74.3% of the cap height, against a median of 71.1% for sans serif fonts, taller than 12 of the 16 other sans serif fonts. Ascenders on b, d, h, k and l rise 3.9% above the capitals, and descenders on g, j, p, q and y drop 27% of the cap height below the baseline, shallower than 14 of the 16 other sans serif fonts. Its letters are of average width for sans serif fonts: an average lowercase letter, spacing included, is 97.1% as wide as the capitals are tall (an average capital, 111%), within 0% of the median. The o is wider than it is tall, 1.29 to 1, and W is the widest capital, at 1.34 times the width of H. Round letters overshoot: O rises 1.3% of the cap height above H and dips 1.3% below the baseline.

The letters stand upright, with no measurable slant. Vertical stems measure 10% of the cap height, heavier than 12 of the 16 other sans serif fonts. Ink covers 25.5% of each lowercase letter's box (its advance width by the cap height), darker than 13 of the 16 other sans 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 41.7% of the cap height, and the blank space either side of a lowercase letter takes up 14.7% of its width. Spacing is adjusted with 113 kerning pairs, more than 8 of the 16 other sans serif fonts. The tightest of them is AY, which closes up by 29.1% of the cap height. The figures have different widths, so columns of numbers set in Orbital Sans will not line up exactly.

9 other library fonts share Orbital Sans's underlying letter structure. Compared with Orbital Sans, Velocity Stripes cuts horizontal stripes through the letters, leans about 10° and sets 9% wider. Hyper 3D adds a 3D extrusion, puts down 62% more ink and has a 80% x-height. Warp Inline cuts a thin line along each stroke, sets 17% wider and puts down 46% more ink.