DM Sans vs Inter
Two sans-serif faces, set live below in their own letters — then the honest take on which to pick and when.
The quick brown fox 0123456789
Colophon Foundry, Jonny Pinhorn · 2019 · weights 400, 500, 700
At a glance
- Personality
- Warm, softly geometric
- Neutral, engineered
- Best size
- Headings and 20px+ text
- Any size, shines small
- Weights
- 400 / 500 / 700
- 400–700, four steps
- Designer
- Colophon Foundry, 2019
- Rasmus Andersson, 2017
DM SansInter
The honest take
Both are low-contrast geometric-leaning sans-serifs built for screens, so the choice is one of temperature, not legibility. Inter (Rasmus Andersson, 2017) is the engineered UI workhorse: a tall x-height and open apertures that stay crisp from 11px labels up to hero type, plus a wide 400–700 weight range that makes it a safe system default. DM Sans (Colophon Foundry, 2019) is rounder and a touch friendlier, with slightly more geometric bones and a softer feel at large sizes. Pick Inter when you want the neutral, could-be-anyone product voice and dense UI that has to stay readable small. Pick DM Sans when you want a little warmth in headings and marketing type without leaving the geometric family. In body copy at small sizes Inter is the surer bet; DM Sans rewards you above about 20px.
The x-ray
Same size, same baseline — DM Sans over Inter. 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.