Smashing Slab Serif Typography
Feb
Typography has been around for Centuries if not Millennia. It has played a major role in communication and a world without type can be extremely hard to comprehend. Ever since the first letter was punched, typography has advanced significantly. There are now a number of different styles and fonts to choose from, that almost anyone can use on their website or magazine/book. The type of style I will be looking at today is Slab Serif. I have recently noticed a increase in popularity in this style so I thought I would collect a few of my favorite fonts and typefaces and share them with you today.
Background
Slab serif printing type was first introduced around 1815 and was used primarily with advertisements, posters and flyers. Vincent Figgins designed a typeface called Antique that soon encouraged others to follow similar patterns in serif design.
An excellent discussion regarding slab serif typography.
Clarendon model
Clarendon
Have some bracketing and contrast in size in the actual serif. Examples include Clarendon and Egyptienne.
Neo-grotesque model
Tutsplus
The Neo-grotesque model is currently the most popular type of slab serif type. Neo-grotesque have no bracketing and evenly weighted stems and serifs. The letterforms are similar to neo-grotesque or realist sans-serif fonts. Examples include Rockwell and Lubal Graph(as seen on the Tutsplus network).
Italienne model
Playbill
The Italienne model has a distinct difference, with the serifs being even heavier than the stems. This creates a sense of dominance as well as an attention-drawing effect. Some Italienne slab serifs, such as Playbill, have a characteristic Western appearance.
Typewriter typefaces
Typewriter typefaces, this one isn't slab serif but it's a fantastic photo!
Typewriter slab serif typefaces are named for their use in strike-on typewriting. These faces originated in monospaced format with fixed-width, meaning that every character takes up the same amount of horizontal space. Examples include Courier and Courier New (both Neo-grotesque model) and Prestige Elite (Clarendon model).
A collection of the best
Below I have collected a few of my favorite slab serif fonts both free and paid. If you have the money, I would thoroughly recommend the paid fonts. Some authors kindly supply a couple of free typefaces from their paid fonts.
Free Slab Serif Fonts
There a number of great sites where you can download free fonts, these include: Dafont, Fontsquirrel, Urban Fonts, Fontspace.
Nilland
Street Corner Slab
Alexandria
Chunk
Museo
Tertre
College
TypoSlabSerif
Paid Slab Serif Fonts
Many authors like to release their work on their personal sites, however many also like to use websites such as MyFonts and LinoType to sell their fonts
Archer
Trilby
Sentinel
Stymie
FF Tisa
Giza
FF Nexus Mix
Morgan
FF Unit Slab
I <3 New York
Showcase
Slab serif type is becoming more and more popular everyday. Since I started collecting examples of effective use of slab serif type, there has been a number of new websites that have launched using this type. A couple of them have been added to the end of the web design showcase.
Slab Serif Type in web design
Pallian Creative
Breezy Baby
Philadelphia
The Sew Weekly
Brian Hoff
Osmond Interactive
Envira Media
CreativeHunt
Festival Boreal
Edgepoint Church
Mutant Labs
Blue Sky Resumes
DesignWise
Mark Boulton Design
Day to day life
Not only are slab serif typefaces and fonts used in websites but they are also used in logos, brochures, magazines, packaging and much more. If I had a decent camera this showcase would have probably been twice as long.
Kim Florist
Nábytek
London County Council
HuntsVille
House of hoops
Golden Nugget
Bonanza
Launderette
Delicious
Love Ballads
ABCDE
Motel
One Sunday in December
Slab serif in Video
Discussion
Wow amazing article! Thanks for writing it.
.-= Nikola Lazarevic´s last blog ..Winter Olypmic Games Posters from 1924 to 2010 =-.
Beautiful post! Nice collection of typography styles… Appreciate your efforts. Thanks for the post…!
-Deepu
Man deepu you bumped this faster than I could! hehe thanks bud
Awesome article Liam! I’m a big fan of slab fonts these days. Really loving Chunk lately and Museo has always been a personal favorite. Typography has definitely been around for centirues, but since type is typically associated with print, probably not millenia. Gutenberg is credited with inventing his press in 1439 – not quite 1,000 years
Thanks for the article though. Really great showcase.
Wow, nice article! I really love rockwell, but never knew it was known as a ’slab’ serif fontface.
.-= Codesquid´s last blog ..Flags of the world using only XHTML and CSS part 2 =-.
Wow… superb article. What a collection. I’ve fallen in love with slab serif fonts now
Thanks Liam
Awesome post. very informative
.-= Kawsar Ali´s last blog ..20 Must Know Recent CSS and CSS3 Resources and Tools =-.
A very thorough review of Slab Serif typography! I love the showcase and it’s always great to see a roundup of some free fonts. Thanks Liam!
.-= Chris Thurman´s last blog ..Saturday Swirl 5: Tasty Snacks From the Design Community =-.
Stunningly presented, especially love you including every day examples.
Hat tip to an article well presented!
I am subscribed to your RSS but this is probably the first time I am commenting. THIS POST ROCKS!!!! Wow! These are hot fonts!!! AWESOME>>>>!!
.-= King Sidharth´s last blog ..A How-to on Hardcore Motivation =-.
Nice post!!!
Hmm after helvetica a good choice
No seriously great article and I love typo.
.-= DJaVuPixel´s last blog ..14 Calligraphic Ornament Brushes for Photoshop =-.
They are nice Slab Serif Type collections. I agreed with you that I see a lot more of this type style now.Nice post! Thank you for sharing all these.
Great article! I really like slab serif fonts
BTW, how long it took to find “á” when you were typing word “nábytek”? 
It means “furniture” i english, I know that shop, it’s in Prague (street Milady Horákové) and is pretty old school 
I like shops like these 
It’s actually quite simple to acquire that symbol.
Just press alt gr + a
á
awesome set of resources! thank you for sharing this and doing the research for us all to discover. i will definitely be referencing this time to time.
i just want to add, another excellent resource / place for typography is http://www.pilo.me – it by far is the most complete and solid font forum i have visited. you can definitely find similar resources as you have mentioned here at pilo. anyhow, give it a look if you are a type lover. i think it is invite only or it usually is at least, so good luck getting in. if you do get in, be sure to participate as i know they remove deadbeat users time to time.
thanks again for the excellent links!
Liam,
Steinem is a rip-off of Dalton Maag’s Plume typeface:
http://www.daltonmaag.com/browse/fonts/dama/plume
Thanks for the heads up Henrique
really happy to see a deeper look at slab serifs! awesome eye-candy
.-= Martin´s last blog ..GAF =-.
I am big fan of slab serifs. I like the showcase, especially videos.
Awesome post man,
especially showcase! Mind-blowing….
stumbled…..
.-= Nikhil´s last blog ..8 Video Series: Every Web Developer Must Watch =-.
Perfect!Great! This helped a bunch! I’ve seen a few
rather confusing blogs lately, this cleared up some confusion I had.
Beautiful post, your blog is becoming my “go to” source for inspiration etc.
An excellent post, very informative,i truly enjoy it !!!
Found you on BlogCatalog, came over to check out what you’ve got over here.
And I’m VERY impressed, how cool!!!
Lots to do and consider. I needed this! Thanks
You forgot my personal favorite — Neutraface Slab, by House Industries! I like it so much, I switched my personal branding from Rockwell. It’s balanced, clean, and purely geometric.
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