Making condensed and extended letters in Font by Zaweba

Narrow letters fit more words on a line, and wide letters take up space with a kind of confidence. That single choice changes how a font feels as much as its weight does, and in Font by Zaweba it's one slider.

Width is one of the operations in the style stack. It scales the letters from 0.5 times their normal width, which is properly condensed, up to 1.8 times, which is broad and extended. Like the other operations it can be switched off, reset and moved up or down the stack, and whatever you set applies to all 109 characters at once. Spacing and kerning are redone after each change, so the gaps between letters follow the new proportions instead of staying fixed.

When to make letters narrower

Condensed type earns its place when space is short. A headline that has to fit across a narrow column, a label on a spine or a jar, a sign that needs big letters but not much room: these are the jobs where a narrow font helps. It also suits a tall, upright look, especially with a heavy weight, which is a combination you see on posters and packaging.

The thing to watch is the counters, the open spaces inside letters such as o, e, a and d. As you squeeze the width, those spaces shrink. With a light weight there's plenty of room, but with a heavy weight they can close up and the letters start to look like solid blocks. If that happens, either come back up a little on width or ease the weight down.

When to make letters wider

Extended letters feel steady and spacious. They work well for short words: a business name, a logo, a heading of two or three words. Set long paragraphs in a very wide font and the eye has to travel further for every word, which gets tiring. So the more extended a font is, the more it belongs to display work rather than body text.

At the extended end, round letters like O and C become broad ovals and straight letters like H and N spread out. Diagonals in letters such as V, W and A open up. It's worth setting a few of those letters side by side in the preview to see whether the shapes still look like they belong to one family.

Combining width with other operations

Width plays well with most of the stack. A condensed, heavy font with slab serifs gives an old poster look. An extended font with corner rounding feels soft and friendly. Width with italic shear makes a fast, forward leaning face, and at very narrow settings that can feel urgent, which is sometimes exactly the point.

Pattern fills and outlines are a different case. Both need some room inside the letter to show. If you plan to fill letters with a pattern, you may find a normal or slightly extended width gives the pattern more space to read. A very condensed outline font can end up with borders so close together that the hollow middle all but disappears.

Checking the result

The live preview is the honest test. Type a real sentence rather than the alphabet, because what matters is how words look, not single letters. Try a few sizes in the waterfall. Then look at the spacing: Font redoes it for you after a width change, but if a particular pair still looks loose or tight you can adjust it in the kerning pair editor.

A small width change also does something subtle to how heavy a font looks. The same weight seems darker when letters are narrow, because the strokes are closer together, and lighter when they're wide. If the colour of a paragraph looks off after changing width, try a small move on the weight slider rather than undoing the width.

A quick way to explore

Set everything else as you like it, then drag width slowly from one end to the other while watching a word you care about, perhaps the name the font is for. You'll usually feel the point where it looks right before you can say why. Leave it there, and come back once the rest of the stack is in place, because serifs and decorations sometimes change your mind.

Width is one of the simplest settings in Font by Zaweba, and one of the most useful for fitting a font to a real job.