TYPEMATCHSEO
Launch

TYPEMATCH.

V2.1

Browse Directory
700
400
PAIRING ID: CRI-IMB // ETHOS: SERIF + SERIF

Systematizing Crimson Text & Imbue

Build a mono-category system where Crimson Text leads and Imbue keeps long-form content legible.

Display Face

Crimson Text

Weight: 700

Body Face

Imbue

Weight: 400

This pairing is engineered for teams that need a clear hierarchy without sacrificing brand voice. Crimson Text brings bookish, traditional, old-style energy to hero units, pricing sections, and campaign headlines. Imbue absorbs the heavy lifting for paragraphs, product storytelling, and UI labels with its didone, variable, poster 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

Systematizing Crimson Text & Imbue

Build a mono-category system where Crimson Text leads and Imbue keeps long-form content legible.

This pairing is engineered for teams that need a clear hierarchy without sacrificing brand voice. Crimson Text brings bookish, traditional, old-style energy to hero units, pricing sections, and campaign headlines. Imbue absorbs the heavy lifting for paragraphs, product storytelling, and UI labels with its didone, variable, poster 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.

Crimson Text thrives as a headline face thanks to its bookish, traditional, old-style qualities. Use weights 700–900 for crisp editorial lockups.
Imbue excels in paragraphs and UI thanks to its didone, variable, poster traits. Keep it between weights 400–600 for optimal readability.
Hierarchy guidance: run a 1:1.2 modular scale and reserve Crimson Text for H1–H3 while Imbue powers captions, body copy, and data tables.

Best-Fit Use Cases

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

Accessibility Notes

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

CSS Implementation Cheatsheet

:root {
  --tm-header-family: 'Crimson Text', serif;
  --tm-body-family: 'Imbue', serif;
  --tm-header-weight: 700;
  --tm-body-weight: 400;
  --tm-header-tracking: -0.01em;
  --tm-body-tracking: -0.005em;
}
Heading scale: clamp(2.75rem, 3.6vw, 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 Crimson Text at 700 for momentum, while forms, tables, and footnotes stay on Imbue with 400 weight for predictable kerning.

FAQs

Why does Crimson Text make sense as the lead font?

Crimson Text owns the emotional register of this system. Its bookish, traditional, old-style profile helps anchor campaign creative, meaning marketing and product teams can reuse the same voice without reinventing the scale.

Where should Imbue show up?

Imbue is the workhorse. Keep it in paragraphs, long-form editorial, knowledge bases, or anywhere legibility is non-negotiable. Its didone, variable, poster 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.