Impact is a realist sans-serif typeface designed by Geoffrey Lee in 1965 and released by the Stephenson Blake foundry. Its ultra-thick strokes, compressed letterspacing, and minimal interior counterform are specifically aimed, as its name suggests, to "impact". Impact has a high x-height, reaching nearly to three-quarters the capital line. Ascenders are short, and descenders even shorter. The face is intended for headlines and has only limited use in text applications. The face bears comparison with the similarly designed, but narrower, typeface Haettenschweiler, the Letraset face Compacta, and the Linotype face Helvetica Inserat.
In July 2010, Ascender Corp introduced an enhanced version of Impact. It included extensive OpenType typographic features designed by Terrance Weinzierl and Steve Matteson.[1]
Impact is included in the Core fonts for the Web and has been distributed with Microsoft Windows since Windows 98. More recently, it has been used extensively in internet memes and lolcats, especially in webpages such as 4chan, Reddit or 9gag.
