I have a conflicted relationship with slab serif typefaces — sometimes called Egyptians. On the one hand, I find their bold forms enticing; they definitely don’t lack for personality. But it can be difficult to use them tastefully; their emphatic shapes often easily overpower the content. I often see designers turn to perennial slab favorite Rockwell as a tidy compromise, but something about that typeface has never sit quite right with me.

Over at YouWorkForThem, they have a nice alternative to Rockwell by Chilean foundry LatinoType. It’s called Sanchez Slab and, helpfully, they have made its standard weight and that weight’s italic variant are both available to download for free.

It’s not just the desktop version of Sanchez Slab and Sanchez Slab Italic that are free; you can also download the webfont versions for zero dollars. Should you decide to upgrade, the full family is available for US$126 in each format. If you ask me, giving users a free taste of some of a family’s fonts is a smart way to encourage font purchases. I’ve always found it difficult to justify the investment in a brand new type family, especially when it comes from one of the smaller foundries, without being able to test drive it first.