If you need to brush up on your typography knowledge, take a look at our typography tutorials. Again, geometric sans serifs marry best with these. This third sub-category includes Bodoni, Didot, New Century Schoolbook and Walbaum. These pair with geometric sans serifs like Avant Garde, Avenir, Century Gothic, Eurostile, Futura and Univers.įinally, modern serifs tend to have a very dramatic contrast between thick and thin for a more pronounced, stylised effect, as well as a larger x-height. Transitional serifs have a stronger contrast between thick and thin strokes (examples include Bookman, Mrs. Generally speaking, Old Style serifs such as Bembo, Caslon and Garamond will combine well with Humanist sans serifs like Gill Sans and Lucida Grande. 'Serif' and 'sans serif' are very broad classifications, and each can be split into several sub-categories. For example, if you have a really unique display face full of personality, you'll need something more neutral to do the hard work and create a balance.

This could be as simple as adjusting the weight, the size or the colour of the same typeface, but when the typefaces vary, careful font pairing is crucial. It's also important that you establish a clear hierarchy. To achieve the perfect contrast, you'll often want to pair a serif font with a sans serif font. You don't often find that similar serifs or similar sans serifs look particularly nice next to each other. If typefaces are too similar, it's likely that they'll conflict. Contrasting fonts can be hard to find as you're effectively searching for two fonts that are totally different but also complement each other rather than causing conflict.

Adobe garamond pro bold italic