Montserrat + EB Garamond

Grumpy wizards make toxic brew

A standfirst set in EB Garamond, 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 — Montserrat over EB Garamond, in the wild.

Montserrat 700 / EB Garamond 400 — click any section and type your own copy.

Why it works

This pairing spans four centuries — Montserrat's geometric caps, drawn from Buenos Aires signage, against EB Garamond's revival of 1590s French punchcutting — and that era gap is exactly why it works. The sans's uniform strokes and wide stance give unmissable structure at heading sizes, then Garamond's low x-height and fine modulation slow the eye into a graceful, bookish reading rhythm below.

More about each face: Montserrat · EB Garamond

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=Montserrat:wght@700&family=EB+Garamond:wght@400;600&display=swap" rel="stylesheet">

CSS

h1, h2, h3 {
  font-family: 'Montserrat', 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;
  font-weight: 700;
}

body {
  font-family: 'EB Garamond', Garamond, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;
  font-weight: 400;
}

Next.js — next/font

import { Montserrat, EB_Garamond } from "next/font/google";

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

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

From the same deskKeychord— keyboard shortcuts for every app

Why it works

Use this pairing

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