I’m always looking for a little design inspiration and my latest obsession fascination is with the art of typography.
I’m loving on Tyepkit
due to the huge variety of available fonts and the likelihood of being able to match my typeface choices to a company’s logo or printed collateral when designing their website.
There a jillion articles out there on how to create great font pairings, but I couldn’t find much dedicated specifically to Typekit font pairings, so I thought I’d do my own review. So…
My favorite font pairings with Typekit
Myriad Pro paired with Minion Pro
If you’re new to pairing fonts, a good rule of thumb is to mix and match within the same font foundry (those cool people who design fonts). The assumption is you’re more likely to find similar and/or complimentary design characteristics.
This example is a popular pairing of two Adobe fonts: Myriad Pro (sans-serif) and Minion Pro (serif). The anatomy of each is similar enough that it just produces a nice visual harmony. With eighteen different weights and styles* between them, there are myriad possibilities. Aren’t I punny?
* Weights (i.e. light, semi-bold, black)
* Styles (i.e. regular, italic)
Proxima Nova
This font is so sexy, it can stand alone!
There are fourteen different weights and styles available from Typekit. You can also add Proxima Nova SC OSF Condensed to the mix for an additional fourteen weights and styles. Pair any of those together, and you’re bound to look good!
LFT Etica Web paired with Adelle
LFT Etica Web and Adelle (Hello?) are typographic jewels created by TypeTogether foundry. In the example below, I’m using LFT Etica for the headlines and Adelle for the body in two weight variations (thin on the first paragraph, regular on the second).
I love the powerful, yet enticing feel of LFT Etica. Contrasting it against the light-weight and friendly Adelle makes for a font pairing that’s personality plus. I want to have these fonts over for dinner!
Excuse me while I go sniff the pages of some books. I’m getting high on typography.
Le Monde Sans STD with Adobe Garamond Pro
Okay, this time we’re pairing two contemporary fonts, Le Monde and Garamond. They even SOUND good together. Both are easily readable at small sizes and keep nice character at large sizes, making them work equally well in the role of headline or body copy.
Cubano Sharp & Nimbus
For the last Typekit font pairing, I give you Cubano Sharp (by Chandler Van De Water) together with Nimbus Sans (by URW++). Cubano is the heavy-weight champion of FONT FUN. It’s perfect for bold headings, but is reasonably readable at smaller sizes as well. Since it is high on character, I’ve paired it with the more neutral and versatile Nimbus Sans, available in a variety of weights and styles, including a condensed version.
A word on how using Typekit fonts impacts your website performance
Before you run off to implement your new font pairings, let me give you a word of caution. I mentioned the variety of weights and styles available for some of these fonts. If you load every single option for a font onto your website, YOU ARE SLOWING DOWN YOUR WEBSITE.
From your font kit within Typekit, make sure you’re only loading those weights and styles you need.
Nice and useful post. I’ve been thinking of doing something similar as there is not much out there or on the Typekit site that saves time with good type combos.
Thanks, Samuel. Another writeup would be great! The Typekit blog comes out with good info fairly regularly, but would be nice to see some outside reviews.
I know this is an older post, but I like to give props when I gain something useful from a blog post.
I’ve long loved & used Adelle, but thanks for turning me onto LFT Etica, what a gorgeous headline font, the extrabold is delicious, using it in project now.
Thanks Matt! Just last week I downloaded the Typekit desktop beta from my Creative Cloud subscription. It’ll be even easier to play with fonts. 🙂
Post a link to your project when it’s done!
Thank you Carrie – I’ve just got myself the dandy LFT Etica from type-kit and it is looking fab!
A+!
That is such a great, chunky font for headlines. What are you pairing it with?
For a bold pairing with a chunky font, I would go with Savingnon Blanc, a crisp Riesling, Pinot Gris or Chardonnay. But watch that kurning!
Good call. The Grape typeface is so versatile!
Myriad is nice for print as well!
These fonts are great, thank you! Any ideas of something that will work well on a jobs site like gojobr dot com dot au ?
Thanks Gerry! As for your site – it really is a personal decision. The font style should match the mood/message/tone of your site.
Thank you soo much! I just look for some pairing type with Adobe Garamond Pro and this tip was very nice. Great job, Carrie!
Thank you!