Trends in typography seem to evolve more quickly than many other design trends. For a long time, website designers stuck to font palettes packed with sans serif typefaces. But that feels like ancient history now!
Today’s range and variety of web fonts make for much more interesting design possibilities, font pairings, and visual themes.
We’re taking a look at eight trends for pairing fonts with a beautiful example of each, covering a wide range of font families and aesthetics.
What is Font Pairing?
Font pairing is putting together different typefaces for use in one design project. While the term “pair” is used, font pairing can refer to using any number of fonts in the same project.
A good font pairing — typically no more than two or three typefaces — is harmonious while providing ample contrast between lettering styles. Font pairs often convey similar moods and have complementary shapes, so that they bring attention to the message but don’t compete with each other for attention.
No more than one novelty, funky, or challenging font should be used in a pairing. This helps ensure readability and balance in the typography of a design.
1. Serif Sans Serif Layers
Different layers and levels of typography can make for a lovely display.
The Academy of Classical Chinese Medicine uses two type families – a serif and a sans serif – for a timeless combination. Note how the typefaces are stacked in layers.
About ACCM: Caps sans serif
Headline: Serif line and serif bold italic line
Main text block: Sans serif
Call to action: Bold, caps sans serif
What makes this layered typography display work so nicely is the use of space and the shapes of the font pair. Note that each typeface has a round design – you can see that particularly in each lowercase “o” and “c.”
2. Funky Sans Serif Simple Sans
Pairing two fonts of the same style can get a little tricky because you don’t want typefaces that look too much alike.
Intact Software does a nice job with two sans serif options, one that’s just a little funkier than the other with harder edges and thicker strokes. The secondary sans serif is more of a traditional style.
This combination works great for a headline and body text pairing. The funkier style draws attention to the big text while providing superb readability for the smaller type on the screen.
3. Sans Serif Caps Tiny Serif
There’s nothing groundbreaking about using an all caps sans serif. (Everyone has been doing that for a while.)
But the simple serif line beneath and the stark contrast between the big type and the second line is amazing. It’s one of those understated trends that we are starting to see a lot more of in typography and the BBC Earth website nails it.
What’s nice about this font pairing is that everything is easy to read. Both typefaces have uniform stroke widths (which is nice for websites and devices where there is backlighting to think about).
4. Novelty Monospace
This font combination is perfectly brutalist – a trending design style. A novelty typeface with a monospaced style is visually interesting and fist the tenets of the style.
Putting together typefaces for this trend can be tricky.
Opt for typefaces that give you a somewhat intentional mismatched and chaotic feel. If you try too hard for styles that match here, it might fall a little flat. Remember brutalists styles are hard and a little visually shocking by nature. Use that idea in your font pairing as well.
5. Sans Serif Font Family
Font pairs don’t actually have to be paired at all. Using multiple styles within the same family can serve that purpose.
This is a rather popular technique because it makes websites easy to read and always creates a design where all of the text elements are in harmony.
Here’s how to make it work, just like flocc (above). Pair the most contrasting styles from a font family for obvious distinction in the design. Pairing a bold or lack option with a regular or light variation is almost always a winner.
6. Slabs Simple Sans Serifs
Slab styles are smack-you-in-the-face font options that are good for generating impact. Tone down the style with a simple sans serif partner.
This is a classic typography design trend that never gets old and is almost always effective.
Rogue Studio uses this combination brilliantly with larger than life slabs as an artistic element and simple sans serifs for all the stuff you really need to read. Nice spacing also helps draw the eye and keep users on the site.
7. Wide Sans Serifs Modern Serifs
Wider typefaces are making an appearing in more design projects. It can be a tough style, but with the right complementary typeface, it works.
LaFaurie does a nice job with this font pair. The wide sans serif is large in the hero header and provides an interesting take on the navigation elements. The modern serif is more readable and helps generate a fresh, youthful tone for the project.
8. Serif Sans Serif Script
This trio of fonts sets just the right tone. With a modern serif, simple sans serif, and a script the feel is classic, controlled, and elegant.
Pairing three fonts is fairly common and what makes it work well is using distinctly different styles. Using three sans serifs can get clunky and odd visually because the styles aren’t different enough.
Look for a font trio that has the same feel but unique lines and designs.
Conclusion
Pairing fonts can be a lot of fun. Playing with different combinations can add new dimensions of meaning to design projects.
Just keep some of the “golden rules” of design in mind when working with font pairs:
One of the most powerful ways you can communicate and convey your message is by incorporating your designs with beautiful fonts. We’ve come up with 37 of the best font pairings you can use in a wide range of projects.
Fonts and font pairings are one of the most crucial parts of a design. It allows you to create a wide range of effects and moods by utilizing different styles of typography.
Choosing the right font combination for your projects can make a huge difference. You’ll be able to create beautiful and compelling designs instead of dull and lifeless ones.
So which fonts look good and work great together? Read on to find out!
Suisse Works is about the clarity of information, simplicity, and structure. It’s a serif typeface and created by Party of Swiss Typefaces. It’s also under the superfamily of Suisse fonts. It has a text face similar to the style of the good old Times New Roman.
It will pair perfectly with a neo-grotesque typeface like its counterpart, the Suisse International. The font has a design that follows the style of Helvetica and other Swiss neo-grotesque font faces.
There are some subtle differences though which are more noticeable in terminals and counters.
What makes the Suisse family great is that it creates a massive superfamily when paired together and works harmoniously at that.
Suisse Works Price – Approximately USD 161.59 or CHF 160
When you want your design to have a distinctive presence, this font pairing is perfect for you. Domaine is the kind of typography that can make even the worst word look good.
The pretty font comes with organic and yet precisely controlled forms with ragged serifs adding to its naturalistic appearance.
It has an elegance that will work best with the typeface Feijoa, which has similar traits with Latin serif script. It doesn’t have straight lines providing a sensuous and warm contrast to Domaine.
The functional typeface also features rounded corners and curved straights that can provide your overall design with stunning calligraphic quality.
Feijoa’s curvaceous nature is just the right contrast to the mindfully deconstructing style of Domaine.
The font combination is a beautiful contrast of classic and contemporary that works really well with a modern design.
The monospaced sans-serif Andale Mono font-face is created in 1995 by Steve Matteson. Its purpose is to provide programming with an extremely legible font for usage.
It is used to come with Microsoft Windows as one of their core fonts but is now bundled with Lucinda Console.
Both typefaces evoke simplicity and work well on the text. While Andale Mono is highly readable even in small point sizes, Suisse Works is highly effective when set at large point sizes for your headings.
The font pairing of GTF Opposit and GT Walsheim works really well for a billboard, posters, and ad campaigns where you want to make an impact at first glance.
Opposit is best at sending out strong messages that you want to many people to see. The eye-catching typeface is a high contrasting sans serif with reverse contrasts from average fonts such as the GT-Walsheim.
The opposite contrast with thicker horizontal strokes and thinner vertical strokes is balanced by the interesting characteristics of the geometric sans, GT-Walsheim.
The font pair will give your design a unique touch combined with a 70’s feel. Fakt comes with geometric and grotesque characters making the font somewhat unusual. You can also toggle between those styles since you can get them as alternates.
On the other hand, ITC Clearface is a serif typeface with a distinct character to it, which expresses the Zeitgeist.
Fakt Price – Approximately USD1,541 or EU1,400 (Superfamily)
GT Sectra and Heebo is a perfect example of serif and sans serif font pairing. The angular serif GT Sectra combines the calligraphic nature of a wide nip pen with a scalpel knife’s sharpness, which defines the contemporary appeal of the typeface.
On the other hand, Heebo is very readable on web pages and has that warm and approachable vibe.
The letter proportions of GT Sectra is consistent with a classic serif like Heebo. The mixture of unique visual style, high legibility, and easy to read makes the font combination makes for a professional-looking design.
The font combination is Avant-Garde meets slightly playful, making Sharp Sans Display No.1 and Morion perfect together.
The relentlessly geometric Sharp Sans Display No. 1 is an innovative sans-serif typeface with an interlocking ligature system. It also has an extremely legible spacing and features true italics, which is a delightful welcome to its genre.
Conversely, Morion has a slightly fun, calligraphic style but still maintains its control and balance. It works well in larger, decorative purposes.
However, it comes with open type features such as its lower case “a” option that increases the readability of small text sizes.
Combining the two stylistic elements of Sharp Sans Display No. 1 and Morion typefaces makes for a compelling design that can capture the attention of people.
The font pair ITC Ronda and Calibre Regular is a cool geometric font face combo. It will give your design projects with a clean and contemporary touch.
They are the perfect typography to use if you’re aiming for a minimalistic style with plenty of white spaces.
We first saw the geometric constructed forms of Ronda in 1970 while the geometric neo-grotesque Calibre in 1958. Ronda presents a modern, clean look in all applications.
The shapes of its capital B, P, and R, are its distinguishing qualities, while Calibre has a very distinct letter A, which is unlike anything from its genre. You may not like it at first, but it will surely grow on you.
The Chap and Moderat font pairing is a remix of old and new. You’ll love the fluidity that the combo offers. Chap has that classic nib-pen style combined with the 90s geometric vibe. It features pen-drawn shapes reminiscent of the modern 90-degrees digital presets.
Meanwhile, the geometric Moderat is from the sans-serif font face family, enhanced with a set of open type features. Its set of pretty nice stylistic alternates and moderately tight apertures work harmoniously with the sharp angles and high stroke contrast of Chap.
Additionally, the readability of the Chap font will coexist easily with the modern geometric sans.
Chap Price – Approximately USD468 or EU425 (Family)
Moderat Price – Approximately USD418.40 or EU380 (Web)
URW Classico is a remake of the URW under the popular Optima sans-serif font by Hermann Zapf. With corrections of the original and many additional accented glyphs, it became even more perfect for both titles and body text.
Classico is best paired with any member of the grotesque family of text such as the Monument Grotesk. The quality and powerful font-face has great versatile and make an excellent contrast to Classico.
You can easily implement the font combination in your new projects for a unique and standout style, including book designs and bold editorial statements.
GT Pressura Mono takes inspiration from shipping boxes where its edges and corners run within the color. On the other hand, GT America bridges the gap between European Grotesque and American Gothic. Both typefaces are available through Grilli Type.
The grotesque design of GT Pressura Mono utilizes the visual impression of a spreading ink under pressure as a stylistic means.
The condenses sans-serif pairs with its soft side and round corners pairs well with the versatility of GT America which is a combination of the design characteristics of traditional fonts to come up with a contemporary family of font faces.
Adobe Caslon has been gracing us with its presence since 1722. The serif typeface was used during in the early 18th century during the British Empire.
Since then, it has gone through several revisions and redesigns to catch up with the change in technology. Today, it’s still one of the standards in typography.
NY Irvin is a great font pairing for Adobe Caslon, which is a font drawn for the New York Times to use. When in action, these typefaces create a unique combination that will make you feel like you’re in the renaissance period.
However, both are versatile, and you can use them in various design projects, including posters and documents.
The font pair will bring elegance and functionality to your designs. Cadiz is a space-saving font that holds a lot of the early details of the typeface of the early 20th century. It brings clarity when combined with Mackinac, which connects the New World with the Old.
Cadiz exudes simplicity and grace, while Mackinac features a modest contrast of thin and thick. They’re one of the font combinations you’d want to use for packaging, publishing, advertising, and signage.
Poppins and Georgia font combo is perfect if you want a good design but doing as little design as possible.
Although Georgia may not be on your favorite list of fonts, you can’t deny its versatility and how well it works when displaying text on screens. This serif is a bit formal but will remain visible no matter the size of your screen.
The intimate and friendly typographic personality of Georgia fits well with the geometric shape of Poppins. Its letterform has a perfect spacing between its character and height and will look greater either as its body text or heading.
The almost monolinear letterform of Poppins complements the modern appeal and Old World beauty of Georgia quite well.
Brandon Text and Austin is another good example of serif and sans-serif font pair.
Brandon Text takes inspiration from the well-known geometric type sans-serif fonts of the 20s and 30s but possesses better legibility.
But you may not notice the font face right away if you’re like most readers since it doesn’t have that punch that its popular Brandon Grotesque family has. It does have a higher x-height though as well as optimized for screens, small texts, and long texts.
Austin, on the other hand, was a newer typeface which took inspiration from the 18th-century designs of Richard Austin, a typography designer.
When its somewhat condensed letterforms and high contrast style is combined with the subtle charm of Brandon Text will result in a distinct and readable design.
If you want to give your projects with an assured stance that incorporates an overall welcoming character, the SCTO Grotesk A and Ivar is the font pairing for you.
SCTO Grotesk A is one of the most rational and least quirky neo-grotesque typefaces out there. It stayed away from simplistic solutions but rather opt for reader-friendly and animated forms. It’s not sterile but certainly matter-of-fact.
Its companion Ivar may be small but can provide your design with a big impact. The font has a sturdy construction and grace similar to Times and can go head-to-head with other dependable typography today.
No doubt, the font combination can provide your design with a clear and solid font foundation.
SCTO Grotesk A Price – Approximately USD468 or EU425 (Family)
Ivar Price – Approximately USD219 or EU199 (Complete)
If you want to give your design a modern and nonconformist font pair, use the combination of Bluu Next with Roboto. These typefaces offer various styles and amazing details that will not be left unseen.
Additionally, you’ll achieve a reading that’s more natural mixed in with a contemporary vibe.
Bluu Next is a serif font. It is precise and sharp and considered it’s perfect for your brutalist designs.
It’s a great choice for replacing those boring serifs such as the Times. The open and friendly curves of Roboto will complement its characteristics very well.
Roboto is dual in nature and it doesn’t compromise its grotesque letterforms force an unyielding rhythm which allows it to settle in its natural width.
What makes the brutalist typeface Bluu Suuperstar is its highly prominent triangular-shaped wedges. The strokes of the serif font are certain portions have been broken. Its heavier style is best when used as large headlines.
Pairing it with Neue Haas Unica proves that you don’t need every element of your design to have the same characteristics to make it stunning.
Neue Haas Unica is the revival of Haas Unica, and the reinvention of the classic Helvetica made to be legible in small text sizes. The sans-serif neo-grotesque font-face is warm and clear with a bit of loose spacing and narrower letterforms, which is a great contrast to its flashy font pair.
The Value Serif and Apercu font pairing is a beautiful mix of contemporary, minimalist compositions, and amplifying the elements of your projects.
Value Serif has a distinctive groove in some of its letters. It pays tribute to its ancestors the Italian Old Style and Plantin Infant. It’s complemented with the ovoid shapes of Apercu which loves to be combined with geometric fonts and bright colors even if your design is subdued.
You’ll be able to come up with eye-catching designs without pretensions but projects a relaxed and clear message that can capture the attention of viewers and readers.
Value Serif Price – Approximately USD55 or EU50 (Individual styles)
Apercu Price – Approximately USD55 or EU50 (Individual styles)
If you want a serif font pair with calligraphic influence and friendly grotesque, GT Sectra and IBM Plex Mono should definitely be on your list.
GT Sectra has a contemporary look defined by a scalpel knife’s sharpness. It’s very legible and has a one-of-a-kind visual character. It also features compact descenders and accents, which makes it a great choice if you have short line-height headlines.
Combining it with the neutral IBM Plex Mono is especially beneficial if you’re designing editorial. The typeface balances design with engineered details. It has a unified visual appeal but still maintains the visual diversity of its characters.
The serif Tiempos Headline is ideal if you want a fancier typeface for your simple body text. The display version of Tiempos Text features a tighter spacing as well as higher contrast allowing for elegant headlines.
The simplicity and subtleness of the neo-grotesque Roboto sans-serif font work incredibly well with the interesting Tiempos Headline. Putting the two together allows you to make a statement in your projects while not detracting from your seed typography.
Vesterbro is a type of font that provides a sense of being well-behaved blended in with optimism and a slight touch of playfulness. It has a charm that the highly versatile and functional GT America Mono emphasizes even further.
The mashup is surprisingly good and refreshing. Vesterbro has enough distinction, calmness, confidence, and compelling appeal that works rather well with the Swiss Grotesk feeling of GT America Mono.
The font combination is a perfect choice if you want your design to define emotion. It is especially handy for complicated branding and corporate identity projects where various styles are required.
The Orpheus Pro and GT America combo is a lovely mixture of elegance and contemporary. The font pairing is a great way to switch things up in your design.
The whimsical, slightly modern Orpheus Pro serif typeface with the modern sans-serif, GT America is a truly modern option but it works well at conveying the message of your project.
Orpheus Pro comes with a flowing italic style that’s beautiful and has a calligraphic feel. It’s especially noticeable in its alternate, swash characters, and ornate ligatures.
The typeface features a beautiful, flowing italic design that takes on a calligraphic feel, especially in the huge collection of ornate ligatures, alternate and swash characters.
GT America, on the other hand, is a versatile Gothic font with a Swiss mindset. Overall, the typography combination is music to the eyes.
Tiempos Headline has a more traditional form while Neue Haas Unica is unique and elegant and can be paired with a wide variety of typefaces. These characteristics make for a classic font pair.
The simple text and thin lines of Neue Haas Unica is the perfect combination for the tight spacing and high contrast of Tiempos Headline.
You can use them in conservative industries or corporate design that require traditional font combinations but without the element of dullness. The serif and sans-serif pair has enough professional feeling to it but interesting enough for your traditional design to veer away from boring.
A display typeface, Canela takes is a fresh take on historical forms. It features flared stroke endings, which took inspiration from stone-carving. The crispness of its shape is a welcome balance to the high contrast and wide proportion design features of Adieu.
The vibrancy of the font pair may not be your typical combination as the rhythm and forms may not align with how you want to think of them. However, they offer a distinct voice to design projects that will not make them feel like you’re bringing people to something traditional.
Fusing a modern sans-serif with a traditional serif is an effective way to pair fonts, like this Sneak and EB Garamond typefaces combo.
Sneak is a neo-grotesque sans-serif typeface that features some reversed characters. Its top-heavy S has a peculiar style that made it look like it’s upside down. The crispiness of the font makes it great for larger text or headlines.
Pairing it with the classic EB Garamond result in your design having an engaging sense of balance.
The stability and authority of EB Garamond and the simplicity of Sneak make for an eye-catching and versatile combo which you can use for your social media to poster graphics.
Sneak Price – Approximately USD385 or EU350 (Full family)
Roslindale is an exciting typeface that will capture your attention right away with its many dimensions. The serif is a condensed headline with a traditional Victorian feel to it but is high contrast and slender inform.
You can never go wrong when pairing the modern, elegant version of the historic old-style font with subtle moments and the versatility of GT America. You’ll achieve a mixture of contrast, stress, and texture while maintaining a dynamic and controlled design.
Canela is a robust typeface that is somewhere between a serif nor sans serif. It challenges traditional classifications and comes in sharp and soft forms. The modern fon with distinguished classical roots works extremely well the sans-serif neo-grotesque Univers.
The flexibility and neutralness of Univers balance the uniqueness of Canela and will instill your design with a feeling of warmness and trustworthiness.
The serif font-face Larish Neue has seen some updates to provide it a more contemporary appeal. It may not be as quirky as the Larish Alte, but it does offer a lot of distinguishing letterforms.
Pairing it with the open-source and free Work Sans font results in an impressive design project. It is optimized and simplified for both screen and print, thus making it quite popular these days so we’ll surely see a lot of it not only in graphics but on the web as well.
Larish Neue Price – Approximately USD99 or EU90 (Individual styles)
The font pairing creates such interesting elements thanks to the distinctive and unusual design features of Value Serif, as well as the ubiquitous nature of Futura PT.
Futura PT is a sans-serif geometric font-face that brings a sense of modernity to Value Serif.
On the other hand, the latter brings complexity and mystery to the simplicity of the geometric typeface. Your design will always feel modern but will have a unique edge to it.
Pulling inspiration from classic grotesques, the sans-serif font HK Grotesk is multi-purpose. You can use it in a wide variety of designs and projects without being intrusive to the eyes of the readers.
Its distinctive character and friendliness make it suitable for small text and to pair with the sharp and crisp Leitura News serif typeface.
Leitura News is best used in an editorial. It’s an excellent tool kit for any typographer. It works well together with the minimalist HK Grotesk because of its harmonious consistency and contrast.
The best thing about the font pair is that they will not distract readers from the content.
Times New Roman may be overused, but it’s still one of the most trustworthy typefaces out there. The go-to font has always been the star of documents and newspapers, pairing it with the right typography like Roboto can transform it into an effective headline. It brings emotion to the more or less void font.
The typefaces make a great font pairing as the versatility and adaptability of Roboto can bring out the beauty in Times that we usually overlook.
Perpetua Titling MT with ITC Franklin Gothic Std Book
Perpetua Titling MT is a display variant of the Perpetua serif typeface and originally meant to be a Monotype.
For decades, it has established itself as an excellent font to use for contrasting headlines, especially with sans serif font-faces like the ITC Franklin Gothic Std Book.
With its contemporary, crisp style and the design characteristics of ITC Franklin Gothic Std Book, you’ll obtain a modern design that can stand the test of time.
The font pair goes really well with the niche of the website. Ballet is a beautiful art and what better typography to use than those that evoke elegance and beauty.
Domaine is a pretty typeface. Reading it feels like you’re strolling through a charming topiary garden. It has organic forms that are controlled meticulously, while its natural presence is further enhanced with little jagged serifs.
Calibre, on the other hand, is a distinct font that shares a handful of characters even though they were created simultaneously. It’s leaning more towards neo-grotesque, which is a genius move.
The Tiempos Fine and Mabry font combination is trendy and contemporary. Both font-faces have so much personality, and yet they do not clash but rather complement each other beautifully.
Mabry is a demure font with qualities that you’d want to take all in. It’s a hybrid sans-serif of the opposing aesthetics of rational geometric sans and irregular grotesques. The fancy font has controlled sweeping curves that go very well with the sharp details and high contrasts of Tiempos Fine.
GT Super and Ginto Nord is yet another superb example of serif and sans-serif font pairing.
Ginto Nord is from the Ginto font family. It takes Ginto Normal to a different level by remixing its structure with wider proportions and pronounced details. It also stretches from fine hairlines to solid ultra-bold forms.
On the other hand, GT Super is a rad 70s-inspired typography. It followed the footsteps of Perpetua Super, Times Modern, and Trooper Roman but expanded their unique traits in one consistent typography.
Together, these versatile fonts offer high legibility without compromising the overall aesthetics of your design.
Canela is one of the most graceful display font-face you’ll find. It also defies a lot of traditional classes, wherein its forms draw a thin line between serif and sans-serif. Its traits are a mixture of sharp and soft, as well as modern and classical.
Meanwhile, Basis Grotesque is a custom-made typography for Hotshoe, which was expanded for commercial use. It has a style that pulls inspiration from the early grotesques. However, it was injected with just enough twists to make it more shapely and behaved.
You’ll be able to create contemporary designs with a touch of playfulness, while still maintaining a professional vibe.
Basis Grotesque Price – Approximately USD55 or EU50 (Individual styles)
Conclusion
There are numerous various styles available out there, so it’s quite challenging to find the perfect font pairs suitable for your project. There are millions of available typography out there, and you need to carefully think about which ones to combine since not all fonts are winners.
Fortunately, we’ve made your life a bit easier with this list of the 37 best font pairings to inspire you on your next design.
Pairing appropriate fonts is a great way to improve your design and introduce a little variety in it. You may want to pair 2 fonts when designing a wedding invitation card or setup fonts for a business card. It’s a challenge to figure out the right combination of fonts, though. So, first let’s look at how to pair fonts to match the latest trends. While working with pairing fonts, there are three things you should keep in mind:
1. Concordance:
Concordance is when you use a single typeface in multiple fonts on the webpage. It is the simplest way of font pairing as you only need to find one cool font that works well in different styles. So, first, you need to pick a font superfamily. Font superfamily is a typeface with multiple variations that fall into different categories. There are several classifications for a typeface. However, they are primarily divided into four categories:
Sans-Serif: Proxima Nova, Helvetica, and Franklin Gothic (Subcategories: Humanist, Grotesque, etc.)
A common superfamily comprises of font families that are present in both sans-serif and serif. For example, Lucida font includes versions in Handwriting, Typewriter, Calligraphy (script), Blackletter (Gothic), and Sans Serif all in the same family. Because these font families are created to fit in the same family, they share their basic characteristics that help them work well with each other.
2. Contrasting:
Contrasting refers to 2 or more different typefaces that work well together. It is challenging to pair fonts this way, but it also a more original and successful method to design a unique font pairing. The key is to look for different types that have something in common that can make them work well. Even if the fonts are entirely different, they must have one or two of these feature to become a successful pairing:
Weight: It refers to the thickness of the lines. You should always pair thick fonts with thin fonts.
X-height and glyph width: X-height refers to the height between the top and bottom of lower case letters such as “s” or “c.” Glyph width simply refers to the width of characters.
The direction of the axis: Draw an imaginary line over each letter. Different fonts will have different angles on their axis, and that will have a notable impact on how the fonts to pair together.
The shape of character: Every character changes its dimensions in different fonts. Some become small and squat while some are long and lean. Try to pair fonts that have similar shape to show uniformity.
3. Conflicting:
Conflicting refers to 2 or more typefaces that are similar to each other and also work well together. It is obvious you want your fonts to have some similarities, but they should have enough difference to work together effectively. Some of the ways to avoid conflicts are:
Font category: Make sure that you select fonts that are different enough even if they have the same subfamily.
Consider hierarchy: Use weight and size to distinguish between fonts. Hierarchy is essential, so choose fonts that highlight the relative importance of the text in your design.
Use color: If you want to highlight different segments of text, it’s a great idea to use different colors.
Now that you understand how to pair different fonts effectively, here are some latest font pairings to make your design stand out.
1. Proxima Nova and Futura:
Proxima Nova and Futura show us that you can stay in the same font subfamily and still manage contrast. They share a similarity in the shape of character and weight, so they work well together.
2. Bebas Neue and Libre Baskerville:
Bebas Neue is a bold and heavy sans-serif. While on the other hand, Libre Baskerville is a traditional, delicate serif font. They do not share x-height, the shape of character or weight but are similar in terms of the direction of the axis.
3. Nautilus Pompilius and Museo slab:
Museo Slab is a flexible serif while Nautilus Pompilius is a modern script. They both have unique character but still, share a similar weight to maintain proper balance.
4. Adobe Garamond and Hoefler:
Adobe Garamond and Hoefler are both beautiful old-style serif fonts but still work well with each other when it comes to font pairing.
5. Merriweather and Montserrat:
Montserrat is streamlined, modern and legible sans-serif font, while Merriweather is a classic serif font. They make a great pairing if you want your design to be minimalistic.
6. Source Sans Pro and Playfair Display:
Playfair Display is a traditional style font, while Source Sans is a very simple font. They give an elegant look to your design when paired together.
7. Lato and Raleway:
Raleway is a stylish yet simple sans-serif font that can be used with different design styles making it versatile. Lato is also a sans-serif that is much thinner and smaller, which complements the header text.
8. Roboto and Elsie:
Elsie is a detailed, elegant, and artistic serif font that was created to celebrate women. Its smooth edges make it entirely compatible with a font like Roboto that is simple and classic. This pairing is perfect for highlighting specific texts in your design.
9. Josefin Sans and Dancing Script:
The dancing script is flowing and creative font that should be paired with simple fonts. Most script fonts look better with basic fonts, so Josefin Sans is a great choice here.
10. Open Sans and Spirax:
Spirax gives a sense of storytelling and mystery, so it is smart to use something like Open Sans with this font. You can use this beautiful combination in your design to give it a unique twist.
11. Raleway and Cherry Cream Soda:
Cherry cream soda is a creative font that is inspired by the 1950’s soda craze. Its unique style should be paired with a simple font like Raleway to tone down the mood of your design
12. Open Sans and Sansita:
Sansita is a stylish, wavy font with a variety of sizing options available. This font should be paired with a classic font like Open Sans to keep a fun balance.
13. Lato and Wendy One:
Wendy One is a quirky, eye-catching, bold font that is great for emphasizing specific parts of the text. Because the width of Wendy One is large, it needs to be paired with a slim font like Lato.
14. Oswald and Merriweather:
Merriweather is easy to read, and it can also be altered in terms of height and width. This legible serif text works well with thin sans-serif like Oswald.
15. Montserrat and Baloo:
Baloo is a rounded, bubbly font that can be overpowering if not appropriately balanced. So, a classic font like Montserrat is paired with Baloo to make the weight lighter.
These are some latest pairings for you to be inspired and create your exclusive font pairing, although there are no fixed rules for pairing fonts to create a unique design. But you should pay attention to context and select fonts according to different genres. If you are looking for great fonts for In addition to this, make sure you don’t use more than three fonts in your design. Otherwise, people will get distracted from your actual content.
