Typography Pairing Guide

A complete typography pairing system with scale, usage rules, and licensing notes for consistent brand typography.

Best For

•A brand designer without deep typography training uses this to justify a font pairing decision with a rationale client stakeholders can follow.
•A frontend developer implementing a new type scale pulls the px/rem values directly into CSS custom properties.
•A marketing team standardizing fonts across web, deck, and print collateral uses the licensing notes to avoid using a font they haven't actually purchased.

Prompt Template

Recommend and document a typography pairing system for [BRAND_NAME], a [BRAND_DESCRIPTION]. The system will be used across [USE_CONTEXTS, e.g., web, mobile, print collateral]. Based on the brand personality ([BRAND_PERSONALITY]) and the target audience ([TARGET_AUDIENCE]), recommend: (1) Display/Headline typeface, name the font, classify it (serif, sans-serif, slab, etc.), explain why it fits the brand, and specify weights to use, (2) Body typeface, name the font, explain its readability rationale at small sizes, and specify weights to use, (3) Pairing rationale, explain in 3–4 sentences why these two typefaces work together (contrast, tension, hierarchy), (4) Type scale, define a modular scale with specific px/rem values and line heights for: H1, H2, H3, Body Large, Body Default, Caption, Label, (5) Usage rules, 4 specific rules (e.g., "Never use Display typeface below 24px," "Body copy is always left-aligned"), (6) Fallback stack, provide web-safe fallback stacks for both typefaces, (7) Licensing note, confirm whether each font is Google Fonts (free), Adobe Fonts, or requires purchase.

Pro Tip

Specify the target audience's reading context in TARGET_AUDIENCE (e.g., 'scanning on mobile during commutes') since that detail changes the body typeface recommendation more than brand personality does.

Example Output

A sample of what this prompt produces once you fill in the placeholders.

Display: Fraunces (serif, wonky, warm) at weights 400 and 600, chosen for editorial warmth over corporate sans-serifs. Body: Inter at 400/500 for small-size legibility. Type scale: H1 48px/56px, Body Default 16px/24px. Fallback stack for Fraunces: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif. Both fonts are free via Google Fonts.