Politically correct weight names

Nick Shinn

900 is Black and 1000 is Fat.
Just saying.
(Let’s forget about Harry.)
Knockout/Champion was a nice idea, but confusing to non-aficionados of boxing.
Some good ideas here:

Philip Jackson

To me 1000 would be practically impossible. Unless you come up with the most ridiculous Didot-style font that nobody would use, then 1000 would map to 900.
My classification:
(note: the overlaps are intentional. you probably would use the leftmost ones for most practical purposes)
100 - Thin, Hairline, Extra Light
200 - Extra Light, Semi Hairline, Light
300 - Light, Semi Light, Book
(300 or 350 - this font, Alright Sans in this weight)
400 - Regular, Semi Light
500 - Medium, Regular
600 - Semi Bold, Medium
700 - Bold, Semi Bold
800 - Extra Bold, Semi Heavy, Bold
900 - Black, Heavy, Extra Bold
1000 - Fat, Ultra Heavy, Ultra Bold
(1100 - Seriously Magical)

Ray Larabie

There's really no need for Heavy. It's heavier than Extrabold but sounds like it might not be as heavy as Bold or Extrabold.

Get rid of Book because it's just Semilight trying to sound smart.

Black is a color, not a weight. It makes even less sense when you're buying sheets of white Letraset.

Bold, Semibold, Extrabold, Ultrabold, Megabold, Gigabold, Terabold, Petabold

Petabold appear to be the same as Ultralight because the extreme density or something.

Or maybe Ultra should be on top. Skip Kilobold?

Beyond Ultralight, instead of Thin or Hairline, extend it with Microlight and Nanolight. Nanolight could be useful for planet-sized Nixie bulbs.  Millilight?

In frequency nomenclature

LF low frequency
MF medium
HF high
VHF very high
UHF ultra high
SHF super high
EHF extremely high
THF terahertz high?

Maybe Ultrabold, Superbold, Extremely Bold

Florian Hardwig

Chris Lozos

Jan Schmoeger

Make mine Svelt and Tight.

Philip Jackson

Ray, Petabold sounds plausable for an electronics guy but nada for anyone else. I cannot actually agree, but still like. And I agree with Book, as I think it should be like an optical inktrapped thing, not a lighter font that'll not look too good in any press other than the ultimate-ultra-quality machines.
I have went with Ultra Light because it's common knowledge, especially for Mac-using people with a Helvetica Neue obsession. (Or they like apple and like their blinding typography.)
Also, I'm not including Medium because of it's ambiguity, as Semi Bold is better. Obviously I'm not using Demi Bold or Hemi Bold because they all mean half.
Suggested improvements: (Not numbered, it's subjective.)
Ultra Light, Light, Semi Light, Regular, Semi Bold, Bold, Ultra Bold, Ultra

Craig Eliason

"Ultra Light"

I've said this before, but if the light spectrum goes from ultraviolet to infrared, I think type weights should go from ultrabold to infralight. 

Chris Lozos

How about infinitesimal to ultimate mass?

Philip Jackson

That would technically be Radio Light to Gamma Bold.  

Kemie Guaida

I love Tide Sans' surf-inspired if somewhat cryptic, weight system:
100 Lil Bunny
200 Lil Mondo
300 Lil Kahuna
400 Lil Dude
500 Dudette
600 Bunny
700 Mondo
800 Kahuna
900 Dude

Choz Cunningham

Perhaps we could do it like sports clothing?

We could supposedly offer a face in all sizes: XXL, XL, L, M, B, XB, XXB, XXXB. But when you get to the store, the only sizes remaining will be XXB and up.

Dave Crossland

I recommend to use

100 Thin
200 ExtraLight
300 Light
400 Regular
500 Medium
600 SemiBold
700 Bold
800 ExtraBold
900 Black

When families have more than 9 weights, they spill into 2nd families, like Work Sans Hairline and Palanquin Dark

I thought having non SomethingBold/SomethingLight at 100 and 900 is good as it implies these are extreme weights. 

Craig Eliason

I haven't yet seen a typeface design where more than nine weights seem necessary.

Chris Lozos

How many were in Lucas's Thesis originally?  about a zillion?

Adam Twardoch

I've previously suggested the clothing terms (XXS, XS, S, L, XL, XXL) for optical sizes instead of the Captions and Displays that are seriously confusing to some users.

In weight and width, we do have the prefixes Semi, Extra and Ultra. Extra and Ultra seem interchangable but we could standardize that Extra < Ultra.

We could add Mega as > Ultra.

1 Ultrathin
50 Extrathin
100 Thin
150 Megalight
200 Ultralight
250 Extralight
300 Light
350 Semilight
400 Normal
450 Semimedium
500 Medium
550 Extramedium
600 Semibold
700 Bold
750 Extrabold
800 Ultrabold
850 Megabold
900 Black
950 Extrablack
975 Ultrablack
999 Megablack

A.

Adam Twardoch

Another system would be indeed to standardize on a max 9 weights per family, which makes it compatible with CSS webfonts, but use weight series if you need more.

I often found it useful to have more intermediate weights. If I have Lato with 9 weights, I could imagine a Lato Bright series where each weight is a bit lighter that Lato's, and Lato Dark where each weight is a bit bolder than Lato's. Each series would be workable on its own but I could easily have 18 (Lato + Lato Dark) or even 27 (Lato Bright + Lato + Lato Dark) total weights.

It often doesn't matter so much in the bold weights but in the lighter weights, more refinement would be useful for optical gradation. In sanserif designs, a "caption" size needs to be just a bit darker than the Regular but Medium is often too dark.

Deleted Account

This 10 or 20 unit weight system is, like the size range masters to be introduced someday, from the past, before web responsive typography. But just to make sure, how do you propose assigning weight class to color fonts?

Chris Lozos

Hmmm, Sunburst Yellow Slab; Williamsburg Blue Colonial?