Merriweather + Open Sans

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Grumpy wizards make toxic brew

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.

Merriweather 700 / Open Sans 400 — click the text to edit

Why it works

Eben Sorkin designed Merriweather for screens, with condensed, slightly slabby serifs and a tall x-height that make bold headlines feel grounded and trustworthy. Open Sans matches that x-height almost exactly, so paragraphs align optically with the headings above them — the pairing feels engineered rather than assembled. This serif-over-sans arrangement is a long-running favorite for content sites that want gravitas without stuffiness.

More about each face: Merriweather · Open 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=Merriweather:wght@700&family=Open+Sans:wght@400;600&display=swap" rel="stylesheet">
CSS
h1, h2, h3 {
  font-family: 'Merriweather', Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;
  font-weight: 700;
}

body {
  font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;
  font-weight: 400;
}
Next.js — next/font
import { Merriweather, Open_Sans } from "next/font/google";

const heading = Merriweather({
  subsets: ["latin"],
  weight: "700",
  variable: "--font-heading",
});

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