Montserrat vs Open Sans
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
Julieta Ulanovsky · 2011 · weights 400, 500, 600, 700
At a glance
- Best role
- Headlines
- Body text and UI
- Style
- Geometric display sans
- Humanist body sans
- Reads well at length
- No — for headings
- Yes
- Designer
- Julieta Ulanovsky, 2011
- Steve Matteson, 2011
MontserratOpen Sans
The honest take
A classic heading-versus-body decision dressed up as a rivalry. Montserrat (Julieta Ulanovsky, 2011) is a geometric display sans with vintage-poster character, made to command headlines and short labels. Open Sans (Steve Matteson, 2011) is a neutral humanist sans built for maximum on-screen legibility in running text. Choose Montserrat for confident, characterful headings. Choose Open Sans for comfortable, unobtrusive body copy and UI. Rather than pick one, most sites use them together — Montserrat headlines over Open Sans body — which is one of the most reliable Google Fonts pairings there is. If you truly need a single face everywhere, Open Sans is the safer choice, because Montserrat's geometric heft tires the eye across long paragraphs.
The x-ray
Same size, same baseline — Montserrat over Open Sans. 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: Montserrat · Open Sans