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Slab serifs, also called Egyptian or mechanistic typefaces, are characterized by thick, block-like serifs that are roughly the same weight as the main strokes of the letterforms. Where classical old-style serifs taper to delicate bracketed points, slab serifs make a statement — their serifs are bold, rectangular, and unmistakable.

The category emerged in the early 19th century alongside industrial printing, designed for maximum impact in advertising and poster work. The geometric uniformity of slab serifs gave them a mechanical, authoritative quality that felt perfectly matched to the industrial age. Today they convey confidence, reliability, and a certain no-nonsense directness — which explains their popularity in editorial design, technology branding, and signage.

Within slab serifs, there's meaningful variation. Geometric slab serifs (like Rockwell) apply their thick serifs to otherwise geometric, monolinear letterforms. Humanist slab serifs (like Adelle or Bitter) retain more organic stroke variation despite their heavy serifs. Clarendon-style slabs have slightly more contrast and bracketed serifs that edge toward traditional serif territory.

Google Fonts provides several excellent slab options: Roboto Slab pairs naturally with its sans-serif counterpart for cohesive design systems, Bitter is specifically optimized for screen reading at text sizes, and Zilla Slab brings contemporary refinement to the category.

/* Slab serif for editorial headlines */
h2 {
  font-family: 'Roboto Slab', Georgia, serif;
  font-weight: 700;
  letter-spacing: -0.01em;
}

/* Slab serifs work remarkably well at body text sizes too */
.article-body {
  font-family: 'Bitter', Georgia, serif;
  font-size: 1.125rem;
  line-height: 1.7;
}

/* Technology and code contexts */
.tech-heading {
  font-family: 'Zilla Slab', serif;
  font-weight: 600;
}

One practical advantage of slab serifs on screen is their resilience at medium sizes. The thick, uniform serifs hold up well at intermediate sizes (18–36px) where traditional serifs can look frail and sans-serifs can feel characterless. This makes slab serifs a strong choice for subheadings and callout text — the awkward middle ground between headline and body that many type systems handle poorly.