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Slab Serif Fonts with Their Heavy Impact to Grab Attention

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Occasionally considered as a subset of a serif font, slab serifs also have serifs. One of the key differences is that slab serif fonts have bold and blocky shapes for each letterโ€”no wonder they are mostly applicable for invoking emphasis, even from their first appearance and introduction.

Through their logo fonts, several popular brands, including Honda, Sony, and Volvo, use slab serif fonts. You can also explore this typeface further, including its origin, characteristics, personality, uses, and more inspiring examples to try.

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The So-Called Slab Serif

Slab serif has many names to call, such as Clarendon, Egyptian, square-serif, mechanistic, or simply slab. It is a group of typefaces closer to sans serif fonts in their construction (the commonly low stroke contrasts), yet have serifs that match all strokes.

The prominent characteristics of slab serif fonts are thick and blockish, complemented with brackets at the top and bottom. They may have blunt and angular terminals (e.g., Rockwell) or rounded ones (e.g., Courier). Still, they are considered less intricate than other forms of serif fonts. 

The Origins

Developed after the invention of movable metal type, slab serif fonts were first introduced at the beginning of the nineteenth century. This was primarily due to the explosion of print advertising, which required increasingly distinct fonts to instantly capture audiences’ attention. 

Due to their bold, thick, and block-like letters and construction, slab serifs swiftly met this demand. People used them in early advertising works (illustrative and woodblock), making them popular ever since. 

The Characteristics and Personality

The Characteristics

Indeed, slab serifs are unique. The following are a number of characteristics that distinguish them and make them more impactful and memorable. 

  • The so-called Terminalsย 

Slab serif fonts have either angular or blunt terminals (the ends of the strokes), as in Rockwell, or rounded terminals, like Courier. 

  • The Boldness

Slab serifs vary according to different purposes. They have display-heavy boldness (to catch attention) and legible boldness for smaller-sized uses (e.g., body text, print, or reading on devices).

  • The Iconic Stroke Widthย 

We can define a stroke width as the straight or curved lineโ€”the curves and anglesโ€”in a letter. Again, slab serif fonts have a variety of stroke widths for various uses. For instance, a slab serif, such as Clarendon, offers thicker stroke widths that make it more appropriate for headlines. 

The Personality

Three words to express slab serif fonts are bold, confident, and rugged. These fonts undeniably evoke a sense of classics yet also modernized. In other words, this typeface offers the feelings of solidness and confidence. Accordingly, slab serifs are ideal for businesses or brands pursuing an โ€œestablishedโ€ nature.

The Use

Given the above characteristics and personality, slab serif fonts are increasingly used in graphic design. Designers mostly use them to create titles, headlines, logos, and other creative projects that demand eye-catching and impactful effects. 

Indeed, slab serifs tend to add visual stress or accent, as well as authority and confidence, to texts, enabling them to perfectly convey the perceptions of strength and stability. Simply put, these fonts are highly suitable for display-heavy projects and branding designs. 

7 Inspirational Slab Serif Examples

From branding to more display- or impact-heavy designs, slab serif fonts are ideal for various creative purposes. Here are some slab serif font examples you can take as inspiration.

1. Roberto

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Roberto is a Slab Serif Font that exudes a sophisticated yet vintage appeal from the very first look. Suitable for various creative purposes, this font offers elegant and refined touches to your designs. If you want to pursue the heavy impact of timelessness or even tradition, Roberto is the right choice for any vintage aesthetics. 

2. Prisma Modern

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Not only is it a slab serif, but Prisma Modern also belongs to the condensed font category. This typeface strikes with its bold, thick, and impactful letterforms, designed in minimalist yet elegantly appealing shapes. These fonts are extremely easy to read and ideal for headlines, post templates, logos, videos, and more. 

3. Trendy Edition

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Trendy Edition is an attractive, modern, and classy slab serif font combo. As the name implies, it is a trendy font with a thick yet attractive design, allowing an instant, powerful effect to lock attention. You can apply this typeface to any project with retro to futuristic themes. 

4. Gains

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This slab serif is a modern sans serif font family and a display typeface. This tall, fine-looking, yet impactful font suits logo font or logotype. In addition to logos, they are highly applicable for designing layouts or templates, advertising branding, elegant crafting, videos, beauty design, and the like.

5. Kamely

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Kamely offers a condensed serif family font and a modern futuristic slab serif font. This display font radiates a strong and even mighty look in quite tall, wide, and bold shapes. They are great for headlines and other design purposes, such as posters, games, videos, post templates, logos, and more. 

6. Varina

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Varina Vintage Slab Serif Font is not only bold but also eye-catching. This retro vintage display font features thick and solid characters, designed with small “feet” at the end of each letter. Combining retro and vintage styles, not to mention a strong and blocky appearance, this typeface is also extremely effortless to read. 

7. Thandy

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You can expect another modern slab serif font for its strong and bold look and effect. This typeface falls under more categorizations, such as mid-century, summer font, vintage font, logo font, hand-lettered font, retro font, urban font, or playful font. 

You can effectively pair the above slab serif fonts with other complementary typefaces to create more visual contrast and hierarchyโ€”for example, slab serifs for headlines and sans serifs for captions or body texts.ย To sum up, slab serif fonts are close relatives of the serif family. They are bold, powerful, and impactful. This typeface is ideal for display-heavy designs that offer a more prominent, rugged appearance. It will allow your designs to catch your audiences’ attention and stand out.

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