Rail Stencil

Rail Stencil's lowercase x reaches 75.3% of the capital height, close to the 74.2% median for stencil fonts, taller than 9 of the 14 other stencil 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 25.9% of the cap height below the baseline, shallower than 9 of the 14 other stencil fonts. Rail Stencil runs 5.1% wider than the median for stencil fonts: an average lowercase letter, spacing included, is 86.4% as wide as the capitals are tall (an average capital, 97.5%). The o is close to a circle, 1.09 times as wide as it is tall, and O and Q are the widest capitals, at 1.28 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 13.6% of the cap height, lighter than 10 of the 14 other stencil fonts. Ink covers 31.5% of each lowercase letter's box (its advance width by the cap height), lighter than 8 of the 14 other stencil fonts. Bridges cut through junctions, sharp corners and the tops of open curves, as on a military stencil plate.

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 36% of the cap height, and the blank space either side of a lowercase letter takes up 16.3% of its width. Spacing is adjusted with 92 kerning pairs, more than 7 of the 14 other stencil fonts. The tightest of them is LY, which closes up by 22.7% of the cap height. The figures have different widths, so columns of numbers set in Rail Stencil will not line up exactly.

9 other library fonts share Rail Stencil's underlying letter structure. Compared with Rail Stencil, Ion Hairline keeps the letters plain, without the military stencil effect, sets 17% wider and puts down 46% less ink. Hull Block keeps the letters plain, without the military stencil effect, sets 31% wider and puts down 28% more ink. Hyper 3D adds a 3D extrusion, sets 17% wider and puts down 31% more ink.