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Carrie Dils

Carrie Dils

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Five Great Typekit Font Pairings

Originally published on August 4, 2012 by Carrie Dils 13 Comments
Last updated on May 9, 2017

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

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

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).

LFT Etica Adelle

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

Cubano Sharp & NimbusFor 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.

This is one of my favorite books on typography. In addition to great content, it’s laid out beautifully and has leather binding. It smells good, too. 🙂

 

Filed Under: WordPress Tutorials

About Carrie Dils

I believe you can make a good living doing work that makes you excited to get out of bed every morning.

In addition to this blog, I host a podcast for freelancers, teach business courses at The Fearless Freelancer®, and teach WordPress and Front-end Development courses for Lynda.com and LinkedIN Learning. I'm also writing a book for freelancers.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Samuel Jesse says

    April 25, 2013 at 3:07 am

    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.

    Reply
    • Carrie Dils says

      April 25, 2013 at 5:56 am

      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.

      Reply
  2. Matt says

    August 19, 2013 at 9:04 am

    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.

    Reply
    • Carrie Dils says

      August 19, 2013 at 9:08 am

      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!

      Reply
  3. Central Coast Web Design says

    November 26, 2013 at 6:56 pm

    Thank you Carrie – I’ve just got myself the dandy LFT Etica from type-kit and it is looking fab!

    A+!

    Reply
    • Carrie Dils says

      November 27, 2013 at 9:17 am

      That is such a great, chunky font for headlines. What are you pairing it with?

      Reply
      • Alan Houser (@pixelmelter) says

        December 3, 2013 at 11:30 am

        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!

        Reply
        • Carrie Dils says

          December 3, 2013 at 11:35 am

          Good call. The Grape typeface is so versatile!

          Reply
  4. winedine says

    February 10, 2014 at 5:30 pm

    Myriad is nice for print as well!

    Reply
  5. Gerry says

    October 29, 2015 at 4:20 pm

    These fonts are great, thank you! Any ideas of something that will work well on a jobs site like gojobr dot com dot au ?

    Reply
    • Carrie Dils says

      October 30, 2015 at 2:56 pm

      Thanks Gerry! As for your site – it really is a personal decision. The font style should match the mood/message/tone of your site.

      Reply
  6. Norberto Lima says

    April 10, 2017 at 9:09 pm

    Thank you soo much! I just look for some pairing type with Adobe Garamond Pro and this tip was very nice. Great job, Carrie!

    Reply
    • Carrie Dils says

      April 13, 2017 at 5:20 pm

      Thank you!

      Reply

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