Hey friends! Today we’re talking about font superfamilies.
But first, here are a few resources for you to check out later…
📌 Free font news & links to save
Familjen Grotesk has been added to Google Fonts and it’s beautiful.
New Title, a typeface family designed for movie titles and credits sequences, is now on Fontshare. Fontshare is currently updating their site 😍
The following Google Font families are now available in Google Workspaces! Anek, Fasthand, Gowun Batang, Gowun Dodum, Hahmlet, Heebo, IBM Plex Sans Arabic, and more!
Figma now supports variable fonts! Learn about how you can create more responsive and expressive designs with a wider range of font styles and features via this Figma Community file.
Alright, let’s learn about font superfamilies…
👓 Why you should use font superfamilies
Here’s everything you need to know about font superfamilies to make your next design project shine.
What is a font superfamily?
Are we talking about the Jacksons? The Kardashians? The Brady Bunch? Steve Martin’s fictional family in Cheaper by the Dozen?
Answer: Nope! We’re talking fonts.
A font superfamily is set of typefaces (Example: Merriweather and Merriweather Sans) that have been specifically designed to look good together. Like a musician who plays separate notes simultaneously to create one melodious chord, type designers create font families that stand out individually, but also beautifully combine to offer versatility in style and weight that makes the content on the page more visually appealing and easier to read.
Think of it this way: a superfamily has one mannequin (underlying skeleton form) that can be dressed in many different sets of clothing (serif, width, weight, size, italic). The result: pre-packaged, visually cohesive fonts that are begging to be used together for your next design project.
Now that you know what a font superfamily is, here’s 10 free font superfamilies you can use today!
Quattrocento and Quattrocento Sans
1) Quattrocento and Quattrocento Sans
Designed by Impallari Type
Roboto Condensed and Roboto
2) Roboto Condensed and Roboto
Designed by Christian Robertson
3) Roboto Mono and Roboto
Designed by Christian Robertson
PT Sans and PT Serif
Designed by ParaType
Oxygen Mono and Oxygen
5) Oxygen Mono and Oxygen
Designed by Vernon Adams
Source Sans Pro and Source Serif Pro
6) Source Sans Pro and Source Serif Pro
Designed by Paul D. Hunt (Sans) and Frank Grießhammer (Serif)
Josefin Slab and Josefin Sans
7) Josefin Slab and Josefin Sans
Designed by Santiago Orozco
Encode Sans Semi Condensed and Encode Sans
8) Encode Sans Semi Condensed and Encode Sans
Designed by Impallari Type
Alegreya and Alegreya Sans
9) Alegreya and Alegreya Sans
Designed by Huerta Tipográfica (Alegreya) & Juan Pablo del Peral (Aleygra Sans)
Montserrat and Montserrat Alternates
10) Montserrat and Montserrat Alternates
Designed by Julieta Ulanovsky
Extra Font Superfamily Reading
Here are some more resources about superfamilies if you’re interested…
FontLabVideos — Font Superfamilies Lecture with Sumner Stone
Fonts.com — Super Families
Wikipedia — Font Superfamily
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