Interested in Web Fonts?
I have another article of amazing web font pairings as well! Click here to check it out!
Contrast and Collaboration
Graphic designers generally agree that your different fonts should have an element of contrast (i.e. pairing a Sans Serif font with a Serif font) as well as a sense of collaboration-you want your two pieces of type to complement each other and “get along” rather than clash. Things like style, flow, width, kerning, thickness, and more can all be attributes that help two different fonts pair nicely with a healthy amount of contrast and collaboration.
Free Fonts Below
These fonts are all available (as of the moment I published this post) for free! There are download links below each font pairing example. Let’s get started!
Acknowledgments:
Just some awesome people to mention before we get started…
Quotes by the insanely cool, QuotesOnDesign.com »
Backgrounds for these fonts provided in the sweet background pack available for free at Line25 »
Also, double check to make sure any free fonts you download are available for commercial use. Let’s be cool to all the hard working-yet starving-artists out there, guys!
1. Raleway (Thin) & Latin Modern Roman (Slanted)
Latin Modern Roman Download Link »
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2. Alfa Slab One & Lora
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3. Nevis & Times New Roman (Italic)
Times New Roman Download Link »
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4. Dalle & District (Thin)
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5. Ballpark & Centaur
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6. Helvetica Neue & Calluna
Helvetica Neue Download Link »
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7. Aquiline Two & Garamond
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8. League Gothic & English
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9. Novecento Wide (Bold) & News Cycle
Novecento Wide Download Link »
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10. Limelight & Birch Std
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11. Amatic & Journal
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12. Citizen Slab & Five Minutes
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13. Six Caps & DaunPenh
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14. Ostrich (Bold) & Cicle (Fina)
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15. Bebas & Lora (Italic)
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16. Bodoni MT & Josefin Sans Std
Josefin Sans Std Download Link »
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17. Perforama & Quicksand
Perforama Download Link » (Follow download link. Fill out CAPTCHA. Press green button below CAPTCHA to download.)
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18. Arvo & Californian FB
Californian FB Download Link »
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19. College & Ballpark
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20. Raleway (Bold) & Raleway (Light)
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Great idea, love the pairings!
Thanks! Great pairing always seem to make such a big difference when designing for graphics and the web! Glad you like!
amazingly inspirational ….
Ohh… Thanks for theese!
I feel myself really inspired!
Thanks! 😀
Literally just saved my life.
Whew! Always glad to be a life-saver. 😛
Thanks, I am trying to pair Crete round and News cycle. Not sure they go well together. Sometime I like it sometimes I dont. What do you say?
Sometimes different words look better or worse together, but those two typefaces sounds like they’d go together pretty well. I like!
I have finally settled on them by making some line spacing and char spacing adjustments. Now satisfied.
Link to download not working.
Perforama Download Link » (Follow download link. Fill out CAPTCHA. Press green button below CAPTCHA to download.)
very well done, love the graphics!
DALLE font (point 4) is missing, here a working link: http://www.fonts2u.com/dalle.font
Thank you, i will try 🙂
Thank you very very very much!!
Well done ,,, Thank You very much… !!!!
Recommended your Garamond/Aquiline pairing (with credit and a link back) as one of my ten favourite free font pairings for self-published children’s books. Check out all the others if you’re looking for professional-looking choices for an indie kids’ book!
Very helpful! Gracias 🙂
These are brilliant 🙂
I use this site for photoshop fonts http://fontsdir.com
Over 80000 free fonts.
Enjoy!
Unfortunately, Helvetica is not free.
Truth. Helvetica isn’t, but Helvetica Neue is a slightly different variation of it and it is available for free. Thanks for the comment, Robert! 😀
This a very helpful stuff you compiled here Nathan! kudos!
Thanks, Gerome!
What fonts did you use for the text in your article? 🙂
Playfair Display for the headings and Droid Serif for the body. ?
Thank you!