IBM Plex Mono + IBM Plex Sans

technicalminimalmodern

Grumpy wizards make toxic brew

A standfirst set in IBM Plex Sans, one size up — where a pairing starts earning trust.

The five boxing wizards jump quickly over the lazy dog, mixing jugs of quiet vodka while the jury watches. Click anywhere in this preview and type your own text to try the pairing.

“Type is a beautiful group of letters, not a group of beautiful letters.”

— Matthew Carter

Fig. 1 — IBM Plex Mono over IBM Plex Sans, in the wild.

IBM Plex Mono 600 / IBM Plex Sans 400 — click any section and type your own copy.

Why it works

Setting headlines in a monospace flips the usual hierarchy trick: IBM Plex Mono's typewriter cadence and Selectric-inspired details make headings feel engineered, while Plex Sans — drawn on the same skeletons with matching vertical metrics — reads effortlessly in paragraphs. Because both come from one superfamily the pairing cannot clash, which makes it a safe route to the developer-tool aesthetic without resorting to code-editor cliches.

More about each face: IBM Plex Mono · IBM Plex Sans

Use this pairing

HTML — Google Fonts embed
<link rel="preconnect" href="https://fonts.googleapis.com">
<link rel="preconnect" href="https://fonts.gstatic.com" crossorigin>
<link href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=IBM+Plex+Mono:wght@600&family=IBM+Plex+Sans:wght@400;600&display=swap" rel="stylesheet">
CSS
h1, h2, h3 {
  font-family: 'IBM Plex Mono', 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;
  font-weight: 600;
}

body {
  font-family: 'IBM Plex Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;
  font-weight: 400;
}
Next.js — next/font
import { IBM_Plex_Mono, IBM_Plex_Sans } from "next/font/google";

const heading = IBM_Plex_Mono({
  subsets: ["latin"],
  weight: "600",
  variable: "--font-heading",
});

const body = IBM_Plex_Sans({
  subsets: ["latin"],
  weight: "400",
  variable: "--font-body",
});
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