Wide and narrow: lowercase width across the library
The average lowercase letter in Google Fonts is 511 units wide per 1,000 em, roughly half the font size. The extremes are far apart: BBH Bartle averages 1,319, Dorsa only 183, a factor of 7.2.
How width is measured
We take the advance width of each letter from a to z in the regular file, the horizontal space the letter occupies including its side bearings, and average the 26 values. Advance width is what decides how many characters fit on a line, so it is a better guide to how a family sets than the width of the drawn shapes alone. Like every measure on this site it is expressed per 1,000 em.
Classes compared
Monospaced families have the widest median, 600, because every character takes the same cell and the narrow i and l are padded out to match the m. Handwriting is the narrowest class at 418. Handwriting families vary the most: the middle 80% of them spans 308 units, about two times the spread of sans serifs.
| Class | Median width | Spread, 10th to 90th percentile | Narrowest | Widest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sans-serif | 522 | 137 | Dorsa (183) | BBH Bartle (1,319) |
| Serif | 514 | 139 | Stint Ultra Condensed (275) | BioRhyme Expanded (1,028) |
| Display | 506 | 301 | Tulpen One (216) | Asset (1,293) |
| Handwriting | 418 | 308 | Miss Fajardose (211) | Yuji Hentaigana Akebono (720) |
| Monospace | 600 | 150 | VT323 (400) | Sixtyfour (1,000) |
The widest and the narrowest
The widest families are extended display and poster designs: BBH Bartle, Asset, Diplomata SC, Porter Sans Block and Libertinus Keyboard. The narrowest are condensed sans serifs and tall, tight scripts: Dorsa, Miss Fajardose, Tulpen One, Sassy Frass and Stalemate. Both lists cross class lines, which is why the finder lets you filter width without choosing a class first.
| Widest | Narrowest | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| BBH Bartle | 1,319 | Dorsa | 183 |
| Asset | 1,293 | Miss Fajardose | 211 |
| Diplomata SC | 1,189 | Tulpen One | 216 |
| Porter Sans Block | 1,133 | Sassy Frass | 218 |
| Libertinus Keyboard | 1,100 | Stalemate | 224 |
| Diplomata | 1,098 | Six Caps | 224 |
| BioRhyme Expanded | 1,028 | Kolker Brush | 224 |
| Stalinist One | 1,006 | Petemoss | 226 |
Width and x-height go together
Across the 1,787 families with a true lowercase, width and x-height are clearly related: the correlation coefficient is 0.54. Families with a tall lowercase tend to draw it wider as well, so the two measures together place a family better than either one. The map on the home page plots exactly these two figures.
When the name says it
Some families announce their width in their name. Families with “Condensed” in the name have a median width of 422, well under the library’s 511; those with “Expanded” reach 669. The names are reliable in direction but not in degree: one designer’s condensed can be wider than another’s regular.
| Word in the name | Families | Median width | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| Condensed | 21 | 422 | Asap Condensed, Barlow Condensed and Barlow Semi Condensed |
| Narrow | 3 | 387 | Archivo Narrow, PT Sans Narrow and Pragati Narrow |
| Expanded | 8 | 669 | BhuTuka Expanded One, BioRhyme Expanded and Encode Sans Expanded |
| Extended | 2 | 960 | Libre Barcode 39 Extended and Libre Barcode 39 Extended Text |
Width and ink
Ink coverage, the share of the lowercase area that is filled, behaves differently from width. The narrowest quarter of the library has a median ink coverage of 44.5%, the widest quarter 45.0%. Condensed letters pack their strokes closer together, so a narrow family tends to look lighter on the page at the same weight. Each family page gives its own ink figure next to the class median.
What width means for a line
Advance width converts directly into characters per line. Take a column 640 pixels wide and text at 16 pixels: a family of median width (511) fits about 78 lowercase letters of average width, a family at the 10th percentile (372) about 108, and one at the 90th percentile (606) about 66. Real lines also hold spaces, capitals and punctuation, so the counts are a comparison between families rather than a prediction for a given text. The point stands: swapping one family for another of the same nominal size can change the length of every line by a fifth or more.
Finding a width
The type finder takes a width range directly. Entering the median (511) plus or minus 20 units in a chosen class returns the families that would set a line at close to the same length; ranking against a known family does the same while also matching its x-height and its ascenders and descenders.
Width as an axis
In 99 families the variable font has a width axis (wdth), so a single file covers several widths. The most common ranges are 62.5 to 100 (37 families) and 75 to 125 (26), where 100 is the normal width. Measurements on this site are taken at the default width, so a family with a wide range can be set much narrower or wider than its figure here. The width axis page lists every one of them.
Reading a family page
Each family page shows its average width against the median of its class and draws all members of the class on a strip, so you can see at once whether a family runs narrow or wide for its kind. The measured neighbours below that strip are the families closest in width, x-height, ascender, descender, cap height and ink taken together.
Sources
Family metadata (METADATA.pb) and font files from the google/fonts repository as of 28 October 2026; all measurements computed by this site as described in How we measure.