Impact: the meme font, and where it came from
A 1965 Sheffield display face that became the meme font.
Impact
ABCDEFGHIJKLM NOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklm nopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789
- 48Quartz
- 32Judge my vow
- 24Sphinx of black quartz
- 18Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow
- 14Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow
Preview uses Anton, the closest free match.
In use, with Roboto
Edit the words to try your own. The pairing tool has more body fonts.
Some roads only go one way.
The Long Way Home
Two brothers, one borrowed car and a thousand miles of coast between them and the funeral. In cinemas this spring.
History
- Geoffrey Lee designed Impact in 1965 for the Stephenson Blake foundry in Sheffield.[1]
- It was part of Microsoft's "core fonts for the Web" and has come with Windows since Windows 98.[1]
Who uses it
Sources
The free alternative
Anton is condensed and heavy with tight spacing and a tall x-height, the same build as Impact.
Body fonts that go with Anton:
- RobotoA neutral grotesque that stays out of the way of a loud heading.
- Work SansWider letters than the heading, which keeps body text from feeling cramped.
- Source Serif 4A serif body makes a heavy condensed heading read like a newspaper.
Other fonts
- TrajanRoman inscription capitals, and the movie poster font.
- HelveticaThe Swiss sans that ended up on subway signs and airline logos.
- ArialDrawn to the same widths as Helvetica, shipped with Windows.
- FuturaThe 1927 geometric sans of circles and straight lines.
- GothamWide geometric capitals taken from New York building signs.
- GaramondSixteenth century Paris type, revived many times since.
- Times New RomanMade for a London newspaper in 1932, then shipped with Windows.
- DidotHigh contrast French type, and the look of fashion magazines.
- BaskervilleA Birmingham printer’s sharper, lighter serif from the 1750s.
- Comic SansDrawn in 1994 for the speech bubbles in Microsoft Bob.
- CourierAn IBM typewriter face that screenplays never gave up.
- RobotoGoogle's Android system font since 2011.