Superfamily Font Roundup: 40+ Serif and Sans Font Pairings

Peyton Crump, Former Design Director

Article Category: #Design & Content

Posted on

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

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