Font Friday #93

Pratico UI & Slab UI

Pratico UI & Slab UI are legible and confident. Unify the clinical flavor of the mid-twentieth century European fonts and the strength and personality of the early twentieth century American fonts.” (from the specimen)

Sans-serif, Slab Serif typeface

from DSType Foundry
designed by Dino dos Santos, Pedro Leal

18 Styles

9 Weights: Thin to Black
in sans-serif and slab
with matching italics

Best for

  • Headings (display text)
  • Long reading text (body text)
  • User Interfaces (functional text)

License starting

around $40 (one style)
around $300 (bundle)

Specialty

A highly legible, unique super-family that gives your UI designs a confident and clear look.

Get Pratico UI
Get Pratico Slab UI

My thoughts on Pratico UI & Slab UI

We need more unique, interesting and legible typefaces for UIs, bringing variety to our digital companions, while making our projects more memorable. Pratico UI and Pratico Slab UI contribute to that. I repeat it over and over again, that legibility is key (meaning distinct characters), especially in UIs. Pratico UI takes care of that. It’s clear, has a large x-height, passes the famous Il1 test, while having has a rather squarish design, and wider proportions.

Pratico UI is super clear, coming with all the ingredients you need to make it as legible as possible while passing the Il1 test, of course. Pratico Slab UI has more personality, as you see, while still not sacrificing legibility. The serifs can become a bit dense at times though.

When designing for UIs or small text in general, always consider the right contrast. Font-weight: 400 might look good in 18 px, but it soon becomes too light in smaller sizes. Font-weight: 500 can be great for tiny text, but too dark for body text. And everything in between can be an edge case, as you can see below.

Font weight 400 for everything: At 18 px in font weight 400 Pratico UI looks good. At 16 px in font weight 400 it might be a bit too light. At 12 px in font weight 400 it has too little contrast.
Font weight 500 for everything: At 18 px in font weight 500 it seems too dark. At 16 px in font weight 500 it seems slightly too dark. At 12 px in font weight 500 it has the right amount of contrast.

To solve that dilemma, I recommend adjusting the weight for each size. With Pratico UI you can even go between the common styles and apply font-weight: 450, so it always has the right amount of contrast. See it in this short video. I appreciate that DSType Foundry sells the typefaces as complete family only, so you will always be able to seamlessly adjustment the weights with the variable font.

Using individual font weights: At 18 px in font weight 400 Pratico UI looks good. At 16 px in font weight 450 Pratico UI looks good. At 12 px in font weight 500 Pratico UI looks good.
Avoid Pratico Slab UI in tiny sizes. At 18 px in font weight 400 Pratico Slab UI looks good. At 16 px in font weight 450 Pratico Slab UI looks good. At 12 px and in font weight 500 Pratico Slab UI is a bit too noisy.

One more thing about Pratico Slab UI. It definitely is more unique, and striking, also well suited for small text. But in tiny sizes, the serifs create a very dense visual impression, so I would avoid that (see above). Also know that for body text and display text consider Pratico and Pratico Slab, while Pratico UI is aimed towards small sizes.

Font Pairings for Pratico UI

Of course, there is the complete Partico superfamily that works nicely for all sorts of text. But if you want a crazy heading font, choose Hand Stamp Slab Serif.

Pratico UI & Slab UI
Pratico UI & Slab UI
  • Headings
  • Copy
  • UI Text
Hand Stamp Slab Serif
Hand Stamp Slab Serif
  • Headings

Learn more about pairing typefaces using the Font Matrix.

What do you think? Is this typeface something for an upcoming project, or do you have a font recommendation? Tell me in the comments below!

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2 Comments

  1. It was a time for one UI font to show up on Pimp My Type. Thanks, Oliver for this super Pratico star. ⭐
    I don’t have a project for it (yet) but I have many designer connections on LinkedIn who complained about finding the perfect UI type. I can share this very helpful review from you.

    Wow, wow, it’s so congruent. It’s hard to find a delicate Slab serif without being overly serious and reserved. This Slab version is friendlier than many out there.
    And no, I don’t like Black and Italic, but everything in between, and Pratico UI and Slab UI are both very pleasant novelties on the type scene.

    Reply

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