Very condensed font suggestions?

its_betty
28.Feb.2006 1.14pm
its_betty's picture

I am looking for a very very condensed font, to use for numbers (prices) on store shelf tags.

I've searched and searched but have not found anything quite skinny enough. The prices have to fit in a very small width space but are required to be a certain height (by law).

In the past I've adapted a font by further condensing it, but I'd prefer to buy a very very condensed font for this new round.

I'll need a heavy or black as well as a light or book face. Even better if $ and ¢ are smaller than the numerals.

The font should be sans serif, and should play well with avenir which will probably be used for the rest of the type of the signs.

Any suggestions are appreciated!

--Betty

Mário Feliciano's Morgan Tower:
http://vllg.com/Feliciano/Morgan/mudTyper+Weights/

Scroll down; it's at the bottom in the list and the mudTyper.


Pakt and Empire aren't quite what I need but "Bee" might do the trick.

Can I ask if you just knew these typefaces or if you used a search function to find them? I feel like there must be more keywords to help in my quest. I've searched condensed, compressed, narrow, thin as well as many "fonts like this."

Thanks.

--Betty


A side note: if you find something that's almost condensed enough and you want to mechanically compress it further, choose something with stroke contrast (so you don't get the stroke contrast flipped), and maybe something by Unger, since he designs with mechanical compression in mind.

hhp


And for giggles: Barcode. None more narrow.


Betty did you try the keyword "film", not sure if it works but that is what I though.


Try P22's LTC Jefferson Gothic.

Jim


My Risky Business Square Extra Light is also extra condensed, a little quirky, and has a number of complementary faces.


I wonder, how many syllables are there in English?
Because a structure like Hangul would be really cool to
implement for Latin, not least due to its horizontal economy.

hhp


and FB Titling Gothic has 7 weights of the "Skyline" width, which, though not as skinny as gigling down the aisle Kate Moss inspired Barcode, but I'm not as skinny as the designer of that font.


> Kate Moss

Ah, the highly celebrated Goddam Cadaverous Waif weight.
http://typophile.com/node/14722

hhp


Linotype Univers Compressed


Univers Condensed or Eurostyle Condensed
---


How about the (gasp) Helvetica Compressed group?
ChrisL


Armada Thin Compressed reaches the limit of the unreadable.

Héctor


If you had more legible type you could go smaller without going narrower - so how about the H&FJ Retina fonts they did for stock prices in the WSJ?


"prices have to fit in a very small width space but are required to be a certain height (by law)."

"you could go smaller without going narrower"

sometimes you can. sometimes the law begs for variations ;-)


Sometimes you just have to stand tall.

ChrisL


If you're looking for film credits - Universe Thin Ultra Condensed is used a lot. Bee is also up there…
peace


Thanks everyone, there are a lot of good suggestions here.

I've had another project explode on me, but once that fire is out I'll be back to this one and will let you know what we finally choose.

--Betty


A new alternative to Univers Compressed, which you might like, is TypeTrust's Heroic Condensed.