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Superfamily Font Roundup: 40+ Serif and Sans Font Pairings

Peyton Crump
Peyton Crump, ON THE TOPIC OF General
Oct29 15

For some reason, it remains difficult to hunt down font families that have a serif and sans-serif combo. As far as I have found, none of the font sites allow you to search by this designation, yet it seems quite useful to utilize the hard work of typographers who, with great attention, have designed sets that work in this capacity. I'm not a huge student of typography, but I do understand that there's some grumbling about the use of these pairings, that using them produces less-than-ideal results or reflects a bit of laziness. I get it, and agree that some of the best combos are hand picked, but this post isn't about that. There are plenty of other font pairings that don't share a family, that work together because they contrast nicely, but again maybe a different post. This post is simply put together to identify what is available in the event that you're needing a quick sans/sans-serif harmonious combo or you're looking for wider variations within a single family style.

There isn't a clearly standardized name for serif/sans-serif paired families, but from what I can find, superfamily is the term most commonly used. You may also find references that use the terms suite, hyperfamily, type system, or family group. Following is a list compiled from other posts that I found and personal font searches. Please share superfamilies that you know of that didn't make the list, and I'll be glad to add them.

  1. Absara & Absara Sans font image
  2. Apex Serif & Apex Sans font image
  3. Aptifer Slab & Aptifer Sans font image
  4. Aviano Slab & Aviano Sans font image
  5. Benton Modern & Benton Sans font image
  6. Boomer Serif & Boomer Sans (follow links for actual font sample) font image
  7. Celeste & Celeste Sans font image
  8. Charlotte & Charlotte Sans font image
  9. Dancer Serif & Dancer Sans font image
  10. Dispatch & Stainless font image
  11. Eureka & Eureka Sans font image
  12. Fedra & Fedra Sans font image
  13. Freight Text & Freight Sans font image
  14. Frutiger Serif & Frutiger font image
  15. Generis Serif & Generis Sans font image
  16. Goudy & Goudy Sans Per Stephen's comment, "These are not designed to be companions. They are very different designs that were both simply named after their creator." Great point, and quite obvious once you have a good look. font image
  17. Guardian Egyptian & Guardian Sans (follow links for actual font sample) font image
  18. Legacy Serif & Legacy Sans font image
  19. Leitura Complete & Leitura Sans font image
  20. Lucida Serif & Lucida Sans font image
  21. Manual Slab & Manual Sans font image
  22. Mason Serif & Mason Sans font image
  23. Meta Serif & Meta Sans font image
  24. Nexus & Nexus Sans font image
  25. Officina & Officina Sans font image
  26. Parry & Parry Grotesque font image
  27. Poynter Text & Poynter Agate font image
  28. Prelo Slab & Prelo font image
  29. Proforma & Productus font image
  30. Rotis Serif & Rotis Sans font image
  31. Quadraat & Quadraat Sans font image
  32. Qugard Slab & Qugard Sans font image
  33. Scala & Scala Sans font image
  34. Skopex Gothic & Skopex Serif font image
  35. Stag & Stag Sans font image
  36. Stone Serif & Stone Sans font image
  37. Thesis TheSerif & Thesis TheSans font image
  38. Versa & Versa Sans font image
  39. Vista Slab & Vista Sans (All)font image
  40. Zine Serif & Zine Sans font image

Added via commenters:

  1. Amselm Serif & Anselm Sansfont image
  2. DejaVu Serif & DejaVu Sansfont image
  3. Fontin & Fontin Sansfont image
  4. Museo & Museo Sansfont image
  5. Penumbra Serif & Penumbra Sans (All)font image
Jan Meeus said on 10/29 at 09:30 AM

Nice listing of “superfamilies”, Peyton.
These will come in handy in the future, as I often have trouble finding the “right font” to match a certain design.

The Museo family also has a sans/serif:
Museo: http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/exljbris/museo/
Museo Sans: http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/exljbris/museo-sans/

Steve Love said on 10/29 at 11:34 AM

Is it just me, or does this start to look like a list of the most bizarre law firm names?

Anyway, great list! How about adding DejaVu?
http://dejavu.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

Andrew said on 10/29 at 01:39 PM

mmmm.  I love officina.  i use that duo all the time.

Chuckypita said on 10/29 at 02:33 PM

Sweet!  Why can’t microsoft word or something have a little scroll down template like that when you’re typing?

Practical information - thanks.

Jannis said on 10/29 at 06:38 PM

Excellent article. Great spotlight on some fantastic type combos!

There is a minor typo in the first sentence of the article though:
“For some reason, it remains difficult to hunt down font families that have a sans and sans-serif combo.”

Peyton Crump said on 10/29 at 08:21 PM

Ah, great catch Jannis. Jan and Steve, thanks for the additions.

Clinton R. Nixon said on 10/29 at 09:51 PM

I’m a big fan of Fontin and FontinSans, made by the same foundry as the Museo family.

Stephen Coles said on 10/31 at 01:24 AM

Excellent summary, Peyton! We did similar sans/serif list at FontShop a while ago, but this is much more complete. A couple of thoughts:

Unlike all the other families on your list, Goudy and Goudy Sans were not designed to be companions. They are very different designs that were both simply named after their creator.

Because this post is clearly meant for professionals who will make good use of OpenType features, I would link to OT font packages whenever possible. Here are a few replacement URLs:

http://www.fontshop.com/fonts/downloads/fontfont/ff_absara_ot/

http://www.fontshop.com/fonts/downloads/fontfont/ff_absara_sans_ot/
http://www.fontshop.com/search/?q=Celeste OT

http://www.fontshop.com/search/?q=Celeste%20Sans%20OT

http://www.fontshop.com/fonts/downloads/fontpartners/fp_dancer_pro_package/

http://www.fontshop.com/search/?q=Eureka OT
http://www.fontshop.com/search/?q=Eureka%20Sans%20OT

http://www.fontshop.com/fonts/downloads/fontfont/ff_nexus_serif_ot/

http://www.fontshop.com/fonts/downloads/fontfont/ff_nexus_sans_ot/

http://www.fontshop.com/fonts/downloads/fontfont/ff_quadraat_ot/

http://www.fontshop.com/fonts/downloads/fontfont/ff_quadraat_sans_ot_update/

http://www.fontshop.com/search/?q=Vista%20Slab%20OT

http://www.fontshop.com/search/?q=Vista%20Sans%20OT

Finally, the following superfamilies are available together as a single discounted package:

FF Meta Serif/Sans Complete Suite

ITC Officina Complete
FF Scala Collection

Michael R. Bernstein said on 11/02 at 10:21 AM

Hmm. There are a a few ‘super duper’ font families as well, like Penumbra, that have intermediate serif styles, making four in all: Penumbra Sans, Penumbra Flare, Penumbra Semi, and Penumbra Serif:

http://www.linotype.com/112292/penumbra-clan.html

Samantha Warren said on 11/02 at 07:36 PM

Peyton,

I love this post, it is a great place to find Typographic inspiration! I happened to have stumbled upon an addition today:

Anselm Sans
http://www.stormtype.com/typefaces-fonts-shop/families-84-anselm-sans-pro

Anselm Serif
http://www.stormtype.com/typefaces-fonts-shop/families-86-anselm-serif-pro

I look forward to seeing more additions from the type community over time!

Peyton Crump said on 11/03 at 11:43 AM

Stephen, thanks for the comments, very helpful. I made a number of updates to the post and urls. Should’ve caught that Goudy disconnect. The FontShop post from 2006 was one of the few straight-forward posts I could find and I have referenced it several times, so thanks. Have you guys thought any about adding fontshop.com functionality that allows filtering by the superfamily designation? It would be interesting to try it and track it’s use. Also, I dig FontFeed and just subscribed. I had somehow missed it until now.

Michael, yeah, a few of the superfamilies in this list definitely go beyond a simple sans and serif combo. I should work back through the post with time and link out to the full spectrum for each. Thanks for the addition of Penumbra.

Clinton, Samantha, thanks for suggesting Fontin and Anselm as well. The list grows.

Peter Bain said on 11/13 at 07:17 PM

Great list. I’d like to add Michael Harvey’s Mentor series, well worth checking out:

http://www.fonts.com/FontPackages/SuperFamilies/Mentor-Complete-Family.htm

Greg Woods said on 11/14 at 09:15 AM

Clever idea for a blog, concisely written - thanks for the effort

Nathan Huening said on 11/26 at 04:09 PM

Don’t forget ITC’s Officina family:

http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/adobe/itc-officina-serif/

I see it everywhere. (Quizno’s, most recently.)

Stephen Tiano said on 12/06 at 01:05 PM

Very nice. So much so, I’ve just linked to it in the first part of a two-part piece I’m doing on font pairing foe my blog at http://tianodesign.com/blog/?p=221. Obviously, I hope for more readers of my own. But I’d also like it if the article brought you more readers, too.

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