Cormorant Garamond vs EB Garamond
Two serif faces, set live below in their own letters — then the honest take on which to pick and when.
The quick brown fox 0123456789
Christian Thalmann · 2015 · weights 300, 400, 500, 600, 700
The quick brown fox 0123456789
Georg Duffner, Octavio Pardo · 2011 · weights 400, 500, 600, 700, 800
At a glance
- Role
- Display / headline serif
- Body / text serif
- Stroke contrast
- Very high, fine hairlines
- Moderate
- Best for
- Elegant titles, invitations
- Long-form reading
- Designer
- Christian Thalmann, 2015
- Georg Duffner, 2011
Cormorant GaramondEB Garamond
The honest take
Two Garamond-inspired serifs that pull in opposite directions on the same heritage. EB Garamond (Georg Duffner, 2011) is a faithful text revival of Claude Garamont's types, with moderate contrast and proportions meant for comfortable reading at body sizes. Cormorant Garamond (Christian Thalmann, 2015) reinterprets the Garamond spirit as a display face: much higher contrast, very fine hairlines, tall and dramatic — gorgeous at large sizes for titles and wedding-style elegance, but too delicate for running text. Choose EB Garamond when you need a classical serif that can actually set paragraphs. Choose Cormorant Garamond for elegant headlines, invitations and luxury branding where its high-contrast refinement shines large. A natural pairing is Cormorant Garamond headings over EB Garamond body — same lineage, complementary jobs.
The x-ray
Same size, same baseline — Cormorant Garamond over EB Garamond. Where they agree the strokes merge; where they argue, fringes.
“Hamburgefonstiv” is the type designer's test word — it carries most of the shapes that give a face away.
Read more
More about each face: Cormorant Garamond · EB Garamond