Maregraphe Mega Compressed is a wild extension of the Maregraphe collection, which grew out of a text found on the wall of a Marseille tide gauge (marégraphe in French), a coastal station that has been there since the late 19th century, daily measuring the change in sea level.
Resorting to the same references as a more conventional serif would, Maregraphe Mega Compressed answers the question of how narrow a serif typeface can be all while staying at least somewhat readable.
Like the rest of the Maregraphe collection, Maregraphe Mega comes in an impressive character set: stylistic alternates, small caps, regular, tabular, and text figures (with each set fitted with a number of currency signs, mathematical symbols, and punctuation), circled numbers, super- and subscripts, and arrows.
The larger size you choose when dealing with Maregraphe Mega Compressed, the better. And when you use this ultra narrow serif typeface to set text in medium and small sizes, it’s a way of making fun of the formal guidelines on readability — let’s say, on a a pack of cigarettes.
Small capitals, case sensitive forms, standard ligatures, proportional lining figures, proportional oldstyle figures, tabular lining figures, tabular oldstyle figures, ordinals, fractions, denominator, numerator, subscript / inferiors, superscript / superiors, seven stylistic sets
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