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19 Top Combos of the 19 Top Typefaces
Would you pair Helvetica with Garamond? What about Minion with Gill Sans or FF Din with Baskerville? Check out the list and let us know what you think!
Written by Terri Stone on October 20, 2009
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Anne-Marie Concepcion spotted the interesting post "19 top fonts in 19 top combinations," written by Douglas Bonneville for the blog BonFX.
Doug says, "I recently compiled a list of the 19 most popular fonts according to usage by graphic designers from all over the web. I could have had 100, but I got it down to under 50, and from there whittled it down to just the 19… What we have here is that list of 19 top fonts once again, but this time combined into pairs to give us 19 excellent font combinations."
• Helvetica / Garamond
• Caslon / Univers
• Frutiger / Minion
• Futura / Bodoni
• Garamond / Futura
• Gill Sans / Caslon
• Minion / Gill Sans
• Univers / Caslon
• Bodoni / Futura
• Myriad / Minion
• Avenir / Warnock
• Caslon / Franklin Gothic
• FF Din / Baskerville
• Trade Gothic / Clarendon
• Baskerville / Univers
• Akzidenz Grotesk / Garamon
• Clarendon / Trade Gothic
• Franklin Gothic / Baskerville
• Warnock / Univers
For an explanation of how Doug did his whittling, and for a downloadable PDF of the combinations in action, go to BonFX.
Would you pair Helvetica with Garamond? What about Minion with Gill Sans or FF Din with Baskerville? Click the word "Comments" below and let us know what you think!











19 font combos
I have a problem with Bodoni, a modern (1798) and Futura, a deco font from the 1920s. I tried them. I still don't think it quite works.
a standard for us
We used Helvetica and Garamond in the magazine I did for years. Good straight forward choices.
Type Pairs
Most of the 19 combos listed are great choices. But if you want to see the science behind these choices, check out my opinion on this site:
http://peatah.org/combinations2.html
Thanks for your interest and support!
Kerry Scott Jenkins
Assistant Professor of Graphic Design
Methodist University