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David Hatleydesign · AI/ML · generative tools

No. 12 / 16 · DisplaySpecimen · 2026-10-27

Cap 700X 500Base 0Desc −256Outline

An ultra-condensed poster face: squared bowls at half width under a heavy round pen.

Download .zipTTF, WOFF2 and CSSBuy me a coffee ↗
Glyphs 108Styles 1Kerning 1,851 pairsUPM 1000Cap 700x 500WOFF2 13.7 KBTTF 52.6 KBSizes anyChecksum 00DA
00Type tester

Try it

ULTRA LEGIBLE 02

72 px · kerning on · click the text to edit it

01Construction

How it is built

Hoop's skeletons with every arc pushed toward a superellipse (exponent 0.3), so bowls get straight sides, then squeezed to half width and stroked at 132 units with round ends.

Counters close to slots, which is the point: it fills a tall poster column edge to edge. Symbols that need room inside them (# % & @ * + ~) keep their full width, and every dot is exactly one stroke wide.

A vector face: it works at any size. The tester and the waterfall use the house steps.

PLATE 12.1 · CONSTRUCTION · SPIRE O208 ON-CURVE · 72 OFF-CURVE · QUADRATIC
Baseline 0x-height 500Cap height 700Descender −2561234
  1. NodeAn on-curve point at (413, 12). 208 in this glyph.
  2. HandleAn off-curve point at (417, 686). Quadratic curves: one handle per curve. 72 here.
  3. Advance482 units wide: 22 of space on the left, 22 on the right.
  4. Squared bowlArcs pushed toward a superellipse (exponent 0.3) give the bowl straight sides.
Plate 12.1. Spire O, drawn from the built font file: every square is a node and every ring a handle the outline really has.
02Spacing

How it fits

PLATE 12.2 · SPACING · SPIRETIGHTEST 8 OF 1,851 PAIRS
12
rJ −110
rV −110
rU −100
rW −100
rb −100
rh −100
rl −100
vV −100
  1. UnkernedThe second letter where its advance width alone would put it: hairline.
  2. KernedThe pair as the font sets it, pulled in by the value under it, in units of a 1000-unit em.
Plate 12.2. The eight tightest pairs in Spire’s kerning table, each set over its unkerned ghost.
03Waterfall

Every size it is drawn for

120 pxULTRA LEGIBLE 02
72 pxULTRA LEGIBLE 02
48 pxULTRA LEGIBLE 02
32 pxSphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
25 pxSphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
20 pxSphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
16 pxSphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
04Character set

All 108 characters

Char
O
Code point
U+004F
Glyph
O
Advance
482
LSB · RSB
22 · 22
Contours · points
2 · 281

Uppercase · 26

Lowercase · 26

Figures · 10

Punctuation and symbols · 46

05In use

Good at

Poster column120 · 48 px

SUMMER

SEA WALL 02

06Download

Get Spire

TTF for desktops, WOFF2 for the web, or the zip with both, the licence and a readme. Free for anything, commercial included, under the SIL Open Font License 1.1.

Download .zip · 2 filesRegular · TTFRegular · WOFF2

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CSS · put the .woff2 next to your stylesheet
@font-face {
  font-family: "Spire";
  src: url("Spire-Regular.woff2") format("woff2");
  font-weight: 400;
  font-display: swap;
}

h1 { font-family: "Spire", sans-serif; }