Space Grotesk + IBM Plex Sans
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 — Space Grotesk over IBM Plex Sans, in the wild.
Space Grotesk 700 / IBM Plex Sans 400 — click any section and type your own copy.
Why it works
Space Grotesk kept the monospace quirks of its parent Space Mono — the bent-leg R, the crossed zero-style geometry — while gaining proportional spacing, so headlines carry a coder's accent without a mono's width penalty. IBM Plex Sans below is engineered blandness in the best sense: even color, generous apertures, no gestures competing with the display face. The two share a rational, drafted quality that suits developer tools, data products and technically minded portfolios.
More about each face: Space Grotesk · IBM Plex 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=Space+Grotesk:wght@700&family=IBM+Plex+Sans:wght@400;600&display=swap" rel="stylesheet">h1, h2, h3 {
font-family: 'Space Grotesk', 'Courier New', Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-weight: 700;
}
body {
font-family: 'IBM Plex Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;
font-weight: 400;
}import { Space_Grotesk, IBM_Plex_Sans } from "next/font/google";
const heading = Space_Grotesk({
subsets: ["latin"],
weight: "700",
variable: "--font-heading",
});
const body = IBM_Plex_Sans({
subsets: ["latin"],
weight: "400",
variable: "--font-body",
});