SPECIMEN SANS
A typeface drawn for small, high-stakes text: dosage labels, instrument readouts and anything where a 1 must never look like an l.
Specimen Sans began with a simple question: what is the least ambiguous way to draw a numeral at 7 pixels?
Process
Every glyph was tested at tiny sizes on real packaging, screens and thermal printer output. Confusable pairs (1 / l / I, 0 / O, 5 / S) were pushed apart until they could not be mistaken.
Output
- 94 glyphs, 3 weights
- Tabular numerals and clear unit symbols
- A web specimen with a live legibility test
The family is free for personal use and licensed for commercial work.