Poppins vs Quicksand
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
Indian Type Foundry · 2014 · weights 300, 400, 500, 600, 700
The quick brown fox 0123456789
Andrew Paglinawan · 2008 · weights 300, 400, 500, 600, 700
At a glance
- Weight / heft
- Sturdy, 300–700
- Lighter, display-leaning
- Best role
- Headlines + short body
- Logos, playful headings
- Scripts
- Latin + Devanagari
- Latin
- Designer
- Indian Type Foundry, 2014
- Andrew Paglinawan, 2008
PoppinsQuicksand
The honest take
Two geometric sans faces built on circles, but with different weight and purpose. Poppins (Indian Type Foundry, 2014) is a full geometric family with real heft across 300–700, so its near-circular forms carry both bold headlines and, at a push, short body runs, and it covers Devanagari. Quicksand (Andrew Paglinawan, 2008) is a lighter, more display-oriented geometric sans; its thinner, monolinear strokes look charming and rounded at large sizes but get fragile in paragraphs. Choose Poppins when you want rounded geometry with enough weight to anchor a whole layout and cover more scripts. Choose Quicksand for logos, friendly headings and playful short labels where its delicate roundness is exactly the mood. Poppins is the sturdier, more versatile family; Quicksand the softer, more decorative accent.
The x-ray
Same size, same baseline — Poppins over Quicksand. 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.