Bold Claim

What a measurement looks like

Nothing here reads a font's own declared metrics. A horizontal line is laid across the bowl of the o at its own mid height and the ink it crosses is measured; a vertical line through the middle of the same bowl gives the thin stroke. Cap height is the top of the H, x-height the top of the x. Every number is in units of a 1000-unit em, so a font drawn on a 2048-unit grid and one drawn on a 1000-unit grid can be compared directly. Pick any family below and the page draws the lines it was actually measured on.

Regular and bold, as drawn

This family's bold	stroke	is lighter than this family's regular	stroke

The swap

Two families, the same number in your stylesheet. The letters are drawn at the same em size, from the outlines in this page, so what you see is the real difference between the two faces at that nominal weight.

Leaving

Arriving at

Your own bold is not a constant either

Family	Category	weights	400	700	bold step

Half the shelf has one weight

What the browser does instead

The catalogue's own label

0measured stroke, units per 1000 em500

Weight is not the only axis

Sixteen years, and nothing moved

All of it

Every family, every upright weight it ships, drawn from its own outlines. The number under each letter is its measured stroke. Sort by it and the catalogue arranges itself from hairline to slab.