Font Pairings & Typography

Font pairings are important because they convey a sense of aesthetics. We are instinctively drawn to visually attractive designs that are clean and pleasing to the eye.

Below are 52 popular font combinations that will give you ideas for pairing fonts for headlines and text throughout your website. All are available free from the Google Fonts collection. As of November 2023, Google Fonts had 1,576 font families. I use Raleway Bold (headings) and Open Sans Regular (text) on this this website.

The "most popular" Google fonts are listed at the bottom of this page.

Alexander Isley

“Good design encourages a viewer to want to learn more.”



Headline: Roboto Condensed
Text: Cabin

Milton Glaser

“There are three responses to a piece of design – yes, no and WOW! Wow is the one to aim for.”


Headline: Raleway Light
Text: Open Sans

Adam Judge

“Love blinds us. Don’t love anything – an idea, a tool, a graphic, a technique, a technology, a client or a colleague – too much.”


Headline: Playfair Display Bold Italic
Text: Source Sans Regular

Marty Neumeier

“Design is easy. All you do is stare at the screen until drops of blood form on your forehead.”


Headline: Roboto Bold
Text: Lora Regular

Unknown

“Bad design is like wearing a rumpled suit. It doesn’t mean you’re a bad person, but it may give people the wrong impression.”


Headline: Abril Fatface
Text: Poppins Light

Stefan Sagmeister

“You can have an art experience in front of Rembrandt … or in front of a piece of graphic design.”



Headline: Ruda Regular
Text: Roboto Slab

Edward R. Tufte

“Design cannot rescue failed content.”



Headline: Work Sans Light
Text: Open Sans Regular

Pierre Bonnard

“Color does not add a pleasant quality to design – it reinforces it.”



Headline: Cormorant Garamond Bold Italic
Text: Fira Sans Regular

Paul Rand

“Design can be art. Design can be aesthetics. Design is so simple, that’s why it is so complicated.”


Headline: PT Sans Bold
Text: Playfair Display Regular

Joshua Brewer

“Socrates said, “Know thyself.” I say, “Know thy users.” And guess what? They don’t think like you do.”


Headline: Roboto Light
Text: Cambo Regular

Steve Jobs

“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.”



Headline: Oxygen Light
Text: Noto Serif Regular

Tom Peterson

“The dumbest mistake is viewing design as something you do at the end of the process to ‘tidy up’ the mess, as opposed to understanding it’s a "day one" issue and part of everything.”


Headline: Arvo Regular
Text: Lato Regular

Lindon Leader

“I strive for two things in design: simplicity and clarity. Great design is born of those two things.”


Headline: Lato Italic
Text: Catamaran Regular

James Bradley

“We designers don’t get hired to make pretty things or win design awards. We get hired to solve business problems.”


Headline: Merriweather Regular
Text: Mulish Light

Charles Eames

“Design is a plan for arranging elements in such a way as best to accomplish a particular purpose.”


Headline: PT Sans Italic
Text: Bitter Regular

Saul Bass

“Design is thinking made visual.”



Headline: Cinzel Bold
Text: Fauna One

JOE SPARANO

“Good design is obvious. Great design is transparent.”


Headline: Old Standard TT
Text: Rubik Regular

Brian Reed

“Everything is designed. Few things are designed well.”


Headline: Work Sans Light
Text: Open Sans Regular

John Franklin

“Simplicity, carried to an extreme, becomes elegance.”



Headline: Questrial
Text: Alegreya Regular

VON GLITSCHKA

“Marketing without design is lifeless, and design without marketing is mute.”


Headline: Oswald Regular
Text: Quattrocento Regular

Thomas A. Edison

"Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up."


Headline: Nunito Light
Text: PT Sans Regular

JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER JR.

"The secret of success is to do the common thing uncommonly well."


Headline: Unica One
Text: Crimson Text Roman

Walt Disney

"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing."


Headline: Julius Sans One
Text: Monda Regular

Wayne gretzky

“You miss 100 percent of the shots you don't take.”


Headline: Varela Round
Text: Noto Serif

Thomas j. Watson

"If you want to achieve excellence, you can get there today. As of this second, quit doing less-than-excellent work."


Headline: Vollkorn Regular Italic
Text: Raleway Medium

Unknown

"The hardest part of any task is just deciding to do it. Once you decide, the rest is just details."


Headline: Ovo Regular
Text: Quattrocento Sans Regular

Benjamin Franklin

"Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn."



Headline: Permanent Marker
Text: Overpass Regular

ELIZABETH GALBUT

"Don’t let rejection create self-doubt. The founder of Starbucks was turned down by 217 of the 242 investors he initially spoke with.”


Headline: Ubuntu Bold
Text: Open Sans Regular

Jason Lemkin

"Play to your strengths. If you aren’t great at something, do more of what you’re great at."


Headline: Source Sans 3
Text: Sintony Regular

Babe Ruth

"Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game."



Headline: Slabo Regular
Text: Lato Regular

Oprah Winfrey

"When you undervalue what you do, the world will undervalue who you are."


Headline: Rufina Bold
Text: PT Serif Regular

Vidal Sassoon

"The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary."



Headline: Dosis Regular
Text: Titillium Web Regular

Sean Higgins



"Every day the clock resets. Your wins don't matter. Your failures don't matter. Don't stress on what was, fight for what could be.'"


Headline: Oswald Light
Text: Esteban Regular

Irene Au



“Good design is like a refrigerator — when it works, no one notices, but when it doesn’t, it sure stinks.”


Headline: Playfair Display Regular
Text: Source Sans Regular

Neville Brody

“Digital design is like painting, except the paint never dries.”


Headline: Libre Baskerville Bold
Text: Nunito Regular

Wojciech Zieliński

“Whitespace is like air: it is necessary for design to breathe.”


Headline: Catamaran Semi-Bold
Text: Merriweather Sans Light

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

“Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”


Headline: Bree Serif
Text: Alegreyo Regular

Mark King

“Design is the body language of your marketing. Don’t slouch.”


Headline: Cardo Regular
Text: Libre Franklin Regular

James Goldsmith

“If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.”


Headline: Istok Web Regular Italic
Text: Average Regular

Shane Meendering

“Bad design shouts at you. Good design is the silent seller.”


Headline: Roboto Medium
Text: Libre Baskerville

Shawn Lukas

“When typography is on point, words become images.”


Headline: Goudy Bookletter
Text: Average Sans Regular

Gabe Boning

“Everybody’s a web designer until, you know, they actually try to do it.”


Headline: Alfa Slab One
Text: Gentium Plus

Mike Monteiro

“A good designer finds an elegant way to put everything you need on a page. A great designer convinces you half that shit is unnecessary.”


Headline: Raleway Light
Text: Frank Ruhle Libre

Jony Ive

“It’s very easy to be different, but very difficult to be better.”



Headline: Prata Regular
Text: Lato Regular

Jim Henson

“Simple is good.”






Headline: Shrikhand
Text: Fanwood Text

Paul Rand

“The public is more familiar with bad design than good design. It is, in effect, conditioned to prefer bad design, because that is what it lives with. The new becomes threatening, the old reassuring.”



Headline: Eczar Semibold
Text: Merriweather Regular

Ray Eames

“What works good is better than what looks good, because what works good lasts.”



Headline: Chivo Light
Text: Crimson Text Regular

Michael Bierut

“If you do good work for good clients, it will lead to other good work for other good clients. If you do bad work for bad clients, it will lead to other bad work for other bad clients.”


Headline: Patua One Regular
Text: Maven Pro Regular

Red Adair

“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.”


Headline: Rubik Regular
Text: Karla Regular

Paula Scher

“It took me a few seconds to draw it, but it took me 34 years to learn how to draw it in a few seconds.”


Headline: Neuton Regular
Text: Work Sans Regular

Paul Rand

“Everything is design. Everything!”



Headline: Anton Regular
Text: Signika Light

Bob Gill

“I’ve never had a problem with a dumb client. There is no such thing as a bad client. Part of our job is to do good work and get the client.”


Headline: Montserrat Semi-Bold
Text: Hind Regular

Support

Most Popular Google Fonts

Top 10 Overall
  • Roboto
  • Open Sans
  • Montserrat
  • Lato
  • Poppins
  • Inter
  • Roboto Condensed
  • Roboto Mono
  • Oswald
  • Raleway
Top 10 Sans-Serif
  • Roboto
  • Open Sans
  • Montserrat
  • Lato
  • Poppins
  • Inter
  • Roboto Condensed
  • Oswald
  • Raleway
  • Noto Sans
Top 10 Serif
  • Playfair Display
  • Merriweather
  • Lora
  • PT Serif
  • Noto Serif
  • Libre Baskerville
  • Bitter
  • EB Garamond
  • Crimson Text
  • DM Serif Display
Rankings are based on overall usage across the web.
Visit Google Fonts to see various styles available for each font, (i.e., thin, light, regular, semi-bold, bold and italic).
Copyright © 2024 · Ray Grubman · All Rights Reserved.