TYPEMATCHSEO
Launch

TYPEMATCH.

V2.1

Browse Directory
700
400
PAIRING ID: CAR-RED // ETHOS: SERIF + SANS-SERIF

Balancing Cardo with Red Hat Display

Build a contrast-first system where Cardo leads and Red Hat Display keeps long-form content legible.

Display Face

Cardo

Weight: 700

Body Face

Red Hat Display

Weight: 400

This pairing is engineered for teams that need a clear hierarchy without sacrificing brand voice. Cardo brings classic, biblical, academic energy to hero units, pricing sections, and campaign headlines. Red Hat Display absorbs the heavy lifting for paragraphs, product storytelling, and UI labels with its geometric, low-contrast, tech texture and dependable rhythm. Together they create a typography stack that scales from high-impact landing pages to dense documentation without retooling your CSS tokens.

Typographic Hierarchy & Scale

H1The Quick Fox
H2The Quick Fox
H3The Quick Fox
PThe quick brown fox jumps over...
Dark Context
Aa

High contrast negative space.

Accent
Gg

Legibility on high-chroma.

Pairing Strategy

Balancing Cardo with Red Hat Display

Build a contrast-first system where Cardo leads and Red Hat Display keeps long-form content legible.

This pairing is engineered for teams that need a clear hierarchy without sacrificing brand voice. Cardo brings classic, biblical, academic energy to hero units, pricing sections, and campaign headlines. Red Hat Display absorbs the heavy lifting for paragraphs, product storytelling, and UI labels with its geometric, low-contrast, tech texture and dependable rhythm. Together they create a typography stack that scales from high-impact landing pages to dense documentation without retooling your CSS tokens.

Cardo thrives as a headline face thanks to its classic, biblical, academic qualities. Use weights 400–600 for crisp editorial lockups.
Red Hat Display excels in paragraphs and UI thanks to its geometric, low-contrast, tech traits. Keep it between weights 400–600 for optimal readability.
Hierarchy guidance: run a 1:1.4 modular scale and reserve Cardo for H1–H3 while Red Hat Display powers captions, body copy, and data tables.

Best-Fit Use Cases

  • High-growth SaaS landing pages that require classic hero statements with trustworthy product copy.
  • Editorial magazines and thought-leadership hubs where Cardo can dramatize pull quotes while Red Hat Display keeps 1,500-word essays skimmable.
  • Conversion funnels or onboarding flows that need Red Hat Display's geometric voice to balance Cardo's attention-grabbing display.

Accessibility Notes

Maintain a minimum 4.5:1 contrast ratio for Red Hat Display body copy and loosen letter-spacing to 0.01em for uppercase Cardo moments. Pairing different categories demands disciplined color pairing—test both light and dark themes to ensure Red Hat Display does not bloom at small sizes.

CSS Implementation Cheatsheet

:root {
  --tm-header-family: 'Cardo', serif;
  --tm-body-family: 'Red Hat Display', sans-serif;
  --tm-header-weight: 400;
  --tm-body-weight: 400;
  --tm-header-tracking: -0.01em;
  --tm-body-tracking: 0em;
}
Heading scale: clamp(2.75rem, 4.5vw, 5.25rem) for H1, clamp(1.5rem, 2.8vw, 3rem) for H2, and keep paragraph size at 1rem–1.125rem with 1.6 line-height.
Component guidance: Buttons inherit Cardo at 400 for momentum, while forms, tables, and footnotes stay on Red Hat Display with 400 weight for predictable kerning.

FAQs

Why does Cardo make sense as the lead font?

Cardo owns the emotional register of this system. Its classic, biblical, academic profile helps anchor campaign creative, meaning marketing and product teams can reuse the same voice without reinventing the scale.

Where should Red Hat Display show up?

Red Hat Display is the workhorse. Keep it in paragraphs, long-form editorial, knowledge bases, or anywhere legibility is non-negotiable. Its geometric, low-contrast, tech qualities reduce fatigue on dense layouts.

Does this pairing support complex localization?

Yes—both families are available on Google Fonts with generous glyph coverage. Test cyrillic/latin accents early, but most Latin-based locales and UI patterns are fully supported.