How tall the lowercase is across Google Fonts
Half of the 1,787 Google Fonts families with a true lowercase have an x-height between 470 and 536 units per 1,000 em, and the median is 505: the lowercase x stands about half as tall as the font size. Sans serifs sit highest (519), handwriting lowest (445).
What the number measures
The x-height is the height of a lowercase x above the baseline. We read it from the outline of the x in each family’s regular file and convert it to units per 1,000 em, so a family drawn on a 2,048-unit grid compares directly with one drawn on 1,000. At a font size of 16 pixels, an x-height of 500 means lowercase letters without ascenders are 8 pixels tall. A difference of 60 units between two families is more than a tenth of the median x-height, enough to make one look a size larger than the other at the same setting.
Where most families sit
The distribution is narrow at the top and long at the bottom. The busiest 25-unit step is 500 to 525, with 453 families, and 1,115 families (62%) fall between 475 and 550. Above 600 the count thins out quickly: only 65 families reach it, 46 of them display faces. The long tail below 400 is mostly handwriting (114 of 172 families), where a small lowercase hangs between tall loops.
The five classes compared
Each class has its own habits. The table gives the median and the range that holds the middle 80% of each class.
| Class | Families | Median x-height | x ÷ cap height | 10th percentile | 90th percentile |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sans-serif | 716 | 519 | 0.74 | 474 | 543 |
| Monospace | 42 | 517 | 0.74 | 464 | 550 |
| Display | 406 | 507 | 0.74 | 430 | 600 |
| Serif | 336 | 482 | 0.71 | 418 | 536 |
| Handwriting | 287 | 445 | 0.56 | 289 | 524 |
Sans serifs and monospaced families cluster tightly: the middle 80% of sans serifs spans only 69 units. Serifs sit lower, with a median of 482. Handwriting spreads the most: 114 of its 287 families have an x-height under 400, and the class median x-height is only 0.56 of the cap height, against 0.74 for sans serifs.
The extremes
The tallest lowercase in the library belongs to Boldonse at 870, followed by Digital Numbers, Anton, Anton SC and Antonio. At the other end, Yuyu Short has an x-height of 151, less than a fifth of the em, and the next shortest are Monsieur La Doulaise, Miss Fajardose, Passions Conflict and Kolker Brush, all handwriting.
| Tallest x-height | Shortest x-height | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Boldonse | 870 | Yuyu Short | 151 |
| Digital Numbers | 748 | Monsieur La Doulaise | 172 |
| Anton | 733 | Miss Fajardose | 182 |
| Anton SC | 733 | Passions Conflict | 183 |
| Antonio | 732 | Kolker Brush | 200 |
| Oi | 713 | Mr De Haviland | 219 |
| Snowburst One | 703 | Qwitcher Grypen | 223 |
| Flavors | 687 | Mrs Saint Delafield | 224 |
Ratio or absolute height
The absolute x-height mixes two things: how large the letters are drawn in the em and how tall the lowercase is relative to the capitals. The ratio of x-height to cap height separates the second. Across the library the median ratio is 0.73; families such as Digital Numbers, Hanalei and Hanalei Fill come close to 1, meaning their lowercase is nearly as tall as their capitals. A family can have a modest absolute x-height and still a large ratio if its capitals are short, so both numbers appear on every family page.
Has the lowercase grown taller?
Grouping families by the year they were added shows how the library’s taste has moved. The median x-height was highest for families added in 2018 to 2021 (525) and lowest for 2013 to 2017 (494). The differences are modest next to the gap between classes, and they partly reflect which classes were added in each period: the early years brought many handwriting families, which pull the median down.
| Added | Families | Median x-height | Sans serifs only | Share at 525 or more |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 to 2012 | 586 | 500 | 506 | 25% |
| 2013 to 2017 | 201 | 494 | 508 | 26% |
| 2018 to 2021 | 507 | 525 | 536 | 51% |
| 2022 to 2026 | 493 | 510 | 511 | 27% |
What the lowercase gives up
A taller x-height leaves less room above and below it, because ascenders and descenders have to fit the same line. The median sans serif keeps 224 units between the top of the x and the top of the d; the median handwriting family keeps 294, and its descenders reach 326 units below the baseline against 213 for sans serifs. Long extenders are what make a script look like a script.
| Class | Ascender | x-height | Descender depth | Ascender above x |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sans-serif | 740 | 519 | 213 | 224 |
| Serif | 747 | 482 | 233 | 249 |
| Display | 726 | 507 | 208 | 204 |
| Handwriting | 720 | 445 | 326 | 294 |
| Monospace | 730 | 517 | 200 | 215 |
Families without a true lowercase
In all, 112 families draw capital or small-capital forms on the lowercase keys: their d rises no higher than their x. Their “x-height” would be a cap height, so they are left out of every x-height comparison on this site and marked as having no ascenders.
Using the figure
To find families with a lowercase as tall as one you know, open the type finder, set an x-height range and a class, or rank every family against the one you know. Monospaced families have a median x-height of 517 across 42 families, close to the sans serifs, which matters when code sits next to running text.
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.