TYPEMATCHSEO
Launch

TYPEMATCH.

V2.1

Browse Directory
700
400
PAIRING ID: TEN-SOU // ETHOS: SANS-SERIF + SERIF

Balancing Tenor Sans with Source Serif 4

Build a contrast-first system where Tenor Sans leads and Source Serif 4 keeps long-form content legible.

Display Face

Tenor Sans

Weight: 700

Body Face

Source Serif 4

Weight: 400

This pairing is engineered for teams that need a clear hierarchy without sacrificing brand voice. Tenor Sans brings humanist, display, fashion energy to hero units, pricing sections, and campaign headlines. Source Serif 4 absorbs the heavy lifting for paragraphs, product storytelling, and UI labels with its adobe, text, companion 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 Tenor Sans with Source Serif 4

Build a contrast-first system where Tenor Sans leads and Source Serif 4 keeps long-form content legible.

This pairing is engineered for teams that need a clear hierarchy without sacrificing brand voice. Tenor Sans brings humanist, display, fashion energy to hero units, pricing sections, and campaign headlines. Source Serif 4 absorbs the heavy lifting for paragraphs, product storytelling, and UI labels with its adobe, text, companion 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.

Tenor Sans thrives as a headline face thanks to its humanist, display, fashion qualities. Use weights 400–600 for crisp editorial lockups.
Source Serif 4 excels in paragraphs and UI thanks to its adobe, text, companion traits. Keep it between weights 400–600 for optimal readability.
Hierarchy guidance: run a 1:1.4 modular scale and reserve Tenor Sans for H1–H3 while Source Serif 4 powers captions, body copy, and data tables.

Best-Fit Use Cases

  • High-growth SaaS landing pages that require humanist hero statements with trustworthy product copy.
  • Editorial magazines and thought-leadership hubs where Tenor Sans can dramatize pull quotes while Source Serif 4 keeps 1,500-word essays skimmable.
  • Conversion funnels or onboarding flows that need Source Serif 4's adobe voice to balance Tenor Sans's attention-grabbing display.

Accessibility Notes

Maintain a minimum 4.5:1 contrast ratio for Source Serif 4 body copy and loosen letter-spacing to 0.01em for uppercase Tenor Sans moments. Pairing different categories demands disciplined color pairing—test both light and dark themes to ensure Source Serif 4 does not bloom at small sizes.

CSS Implementation Cheatsheet

:root {
  --tm-header-family: 'Tenor Sans', sans-serif;
  --tm-body-family: 'Source Serif 4', 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 Tenor Sans at 400 for momentum, while forms, tables, and footnotes stay on Source Serif 4 with 400 weight for predictable kerning.

FAQs

Why does Tenor Sans make sense as the lead font?

Tenor Sans owns the emotional register of this system. Its humanist, display, fashion profile helps anchor campaign creative, meaning marketing and product teams can reuse the same voice without reinventing the scale.

Where should Source Serif 4 show up?

Source Serif 4 is the workhorse. Keep it in paragraphs, long-form editorial, knowledge bases, or anywhere legibility is non-negotiable. Its adobe, text, companion 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.