Bitter vs Roboto Slab
Two serif faces, set live below in their own letters — then the honest take on which to pick and when.
The quick brown fox 0123456789
Sol Matas (Huerta Tipográfica) · 2011 · weights 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900
The quick brown fox 0123456789
Christian Robertson · 2013 · weights 300, 400, 500, 700
At a glance
- Feel
- Warm, editorial slab
- Mechanical, systematic slab
- Pairs natively with
- Standalone
- Roboto family
- Heaviest weight
- 900 (Black)
- 700 (Bold)
- Designer
- Sol Matas, 2011
- Christian Robertson, 2013
BitterRoboto Slab
The honest take
Two slab serifs built for screens, tuned a little differently. Bitter (Sol Matas, 2011) is a contemporary slab designed specifically for comfortable on-screen reading at text sizes, with a slab structure softened just enough to keep long paragraphs pleasant, and it offers a broad 400–900 range. Roboto Slab (Christian Robertson, 2013) is the slab-serif member of the Roboto family: it shares Roboto's mechanical-yet-friendly skeleton, making it a natural body or heading serif on Roboto-based sites, though it tops out at 700. Choose Bitter for a warm, robust reading slab with the widest weight range, good for editorial body text. Choose Roboto Slab when you want a slab that harmonises with Roboto in the same layout, or a slightly more neutral, systematic feel. Both are sturdy and screen-friendly; Bitter is the more expressive read, Roboto Slab the more coordinated one.
The x-ray
Same size, same baseline — Bitter over Roboto Slab. Where they agree the strokes merge; where they argue, fringes.
“Hamburgefonstiv” is the type designer's test word — it carries most of the shapes that give a face away.
Read more
More about each face: Bitter · Roboto Slab