9x16 · v2 · display face
A specimen sheet flatters everything. These are your real strings at real sizes inside the 555px column — the narrow measure is exactly where Clash starts breaking, so it's the only honest test.
Each candidate is shown lowercase (your current system) and uppercase, because condensed faces mostly earn their keep in caps — that's the trade I flagged and it's the thing to look at.
All six are free for commercial use. Fontshare and Google only.
The control. Wide, geometric, pleasant — and the default display face of every startup portfolio since 2021. Note how much horizontal room it eats in the column: the hero headline barely fits and the section heads run to two lines. It is a wide face and you are selling narrow.
lowercase — current system
everything fits vertical.
9x16 work people actually stopped for
190.1Mtotal views
uppercase
everything fits vertical.
9x16 work people actually stopped for
190.1Mtotal views
My pick. Genuinely condensed with American industrial-signage character — drawn for Chicago wayfinding, so it has actual heritage rather than trend. Tall and narrow: the letterforms themselves argue 9:16. Barely used compared to Clash or Anton. Holds up lowercase better than most condensed faces, which is the rare bit.
lowercase — current system
everything fits vertical.
9x16 work people actually stopped for
190.1Mtotal views
uppercase
everything fits vertical.
9x16 work people actually stopped for
190.1Mtotal views
The chaos pick. Deliberately imperfect — irregular joints and slightly-wrong curves, drawn to feel handmade rather than optimised. If "soulless" was the complaint, this is the most direct answer on the list. Width axis set to 78 here so it runs narrow. Risk: the quirk is load-bearing — if the rest of the site stays strictly Swiss it may read as a mismatch rather than a choice.
lowercase — current system
everything fits vertical.
9x16 work people actually stopped for
190.1Mtotal views
uppercase
everything fits vertical.
9x16 work people actually stopped for
190.1Mtotal views
The professional pick. Exceptionally well drawn, huge width and weight range from one file — you can run condensed headlines and normal-width UI from the same family. Doesn't have the "free font look" at all. Trade: it's a workhorse, not a character actor. Solves the width problem cleanly, contributes less personality than 2 or 3.
lowercase — current system
everything fits vertical.
9x16 work people actually stopped for
190.1Mtotal views
uppercase
everything fits vertical.
9x16 work people actually stopped for
190.1Mtotal views
Maximum volume. Very heavy, very condensed — this is the loud-marketing-agency face. Enormous impact at hero size. Risk, and it's real: one weight only, so it cannot carry a whole type system. Use it for hero moments and pair it with something else for section heads, or it becomes shouting.
lowercase — current system
everything fits vertical.
9x16 work people actually stopped for
190.1Mtotal views
uppercase
everything fits vertical.
9x16 work people actually stopped for
190.1Mtotal views
The benchmark, not a recommendation. The most-used condensed display face on the free web — included so you can see what "obvious condensed" looks like and measure the others against it. Powerful, and everywhere. Swapping Clash for Anton trades one over-used face for another.
lowercase — current system
everything fits vertical.
9x16 work people actually stopped for
190.1Mtotal views
uppercase
everything fits vertical.
9x16 work people actually stopped for
190.1Mtotal views