Merriweather + Open Sans
Grumpy wizards make toxic brew
A standfirst set in Open 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 — Merriweather over Open Sans, in the wild.
Merriweather 700 / Open Sans 400 — click any section and type your own copy.
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
<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">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;
}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",
});