Font pairing
Lora+IBM Plex Sans
Lora headings over IBM Plex Sans body. A warm calligraphic serif meets a neutral technical sans, so titles carry character while body copy stays legible.
Lora's brushed curves give titles a literary voice. IBM Plex Sans has a tall x-height and even color in body copy. The contrast is tonal rather than weight-based.
The art of typography
Typography is the visible voice of design. The right pairing balances contrast with consistency, a heading face that earns attention, a body face that earns trust. Test it at the sizes you actually ship, on the surfaces your readers actually use.
Lora (heading)
IBM Plex Sans (body)
Contrast Check
AAAThe quick brown fox
jumps over the lazy dog · 0123456789
- AA normal
- passes
- AA large
- passes
- AAA normal
- passes
- AAA large
- passes
Default colors come from the Editorial Cream palette. Adjust above to test your own combination, these are the recommended heading text against the recommended body / surface color.
Mood
Use cases
Tags
How to Use This Pairing
This Lora + IBM Plex Sans pairing works by combining the visual energy of a serif typeface for headlines with the sustained readability of a sans serif for body text. The contrast in typeface classification creates a clear hierarchy that guides the reader from headline to body without confusion.
For the heading, use 500 or 600 weight, enough to anchor the page without overwhelming the layout. For body text, 400 or 500 weight keeps reading comfortable across paragraphs. If your layout calls for subheadings, step down one weight from your display heading to maintain clear distinction between levels. See the type scale calculator to generate a scale with mathematically coherent steps.
The mood keywords for this pairing, editorial, warm, classic, describe the overall feeling the combination creates. Match these to the emotional register of your content. Formal content suits more neutral moods; creative or lifestyle brands benefit from warmer or more distinctive combinations. Browse all font pairings to compare mood categories and find a pairing that matches your brand tone.
Lora is a calligraphic serif with brushed curves and a balanced text face. It works well for long-form reading and editorial body text.
IBM Plex Sans is a humanist sans-serif designed by IBM as a corporate typeface. It has a neutral, technical character suited to documentation and enterprise UI.
Production Code
Copy-paste into your project, no build step required.
<link rel="preconnect" href="https://fonts.googleapis.com">
<link rel="preconnect" href="https://fonts.gstatic.com" crossorigin>
<link href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Lora:wght@500;600;700&family=IBM%20Plex%20Sans:wght@400;500&display=swap" rel="stylesheet">Setting It up in Your Project
Start by loading both fonts from Google Fonts using the production code snippet above. If you are using the Google Fonts link, both Lora and IBM Plex Sans load from a single URL. The Google Fonts API serves fonts from Google's global CDN with automatic version updates. For self-hosting or a design token approach, copy both the heading and body font-face declarations and assign them to distinct CSS custom properties.
In your CSS, set the heading font family on all h1 to h6 elements, and the body font family on the body or p selector. Using CSS custom properties for font families makes it easy to swap fonts across the entire site by editing one line.
This pairing works best when the heading size creates clear visual hierarchy above the body text. A common starting ratio is 2.5 to 3 times the body font size for h1, stepping down by approximately 1.2× for each subsequent heading level. Use the type scale calculator to generate a mathematically coherent scale.
Line-height for body text should sit between 1.4 and 1.6 times the font size for comfortable reading. Headings benefit from tighter line-height, 1.1 to 1.25 times, to bring the lines close enough that they read as a single unit rather than a list.
Related Pairings
View allThe art of typography
Good typography is the visible voice of design, quiet when it should be, loud when it must.
PreviewFraunces + Lora
Fraunces headings over Lora body. A variable display serif with optical sizing on top of a calligraphic text serif. For long-read publications that want a full serif system without any sans.
The art of typography
Good typography is the visible voice of design, quiet when it should be, loud when it must.
PreviewLora + Inter
Lora headings over Inter body. A calligraphic serif gives titles warmth; Inter keeps long body runs crisp and neutral.
The art of typography
Good typography is the visible voice of design, quiet when it should be, loud when it must.
PreviewSource Sans 3 + Lora
Source Sans 3 headings over Lora body. A humanist sans sets the section titles and a calligraphic serif carries the prose. The direction is reversed from the usual serif-heading layout, which gives pages a writerly feel.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What makes a good font pairing?
- A good pairing creates contrast through typeface classification while maintaining harmony in style, x-height, and overall proportion. The heading typeface should be visually distinct from the body typeface, a serif with a sans-serif, a geometric with a humanist, so the reader instantly understands the hierarchy without needing to read the text. At the same time, the two faces should share enough character that they feel like they belong to the same design system.
- Can I swap the heading and body fonts?
- This pairing is designed with Lora as the heading and IBM Plex Sans as the body. Swapping them, using IBM Plex Sans for headings and Lora for body, is technically possible but typically not recommended. Each typeface is chosen for its strengths at its intended size range. Lora has design characteristics that work best at display sizes, and IBM Plex Sans is optimised for sustained reading at body sizes.
- Which CSS weights should I use for this pairing?
- For headings, this pairing is designed to work with 500 or 600 or 700 weights. For body text, 400 or 500 weights provides the best balance of legibility and visual weight. If you are using a variable font, you can fine-tune the weight to match your layout exactly rather than snapping to fixed steps.
- Is this pairing free for commercial use?
- Both Lora (OFL-1.1) and IBM Plex Sans (OFL-1.1) are open-source fonts with permissive licenses. They can be used in personal and commercial projects, including client work, without attribution requirements. Confirm with your legal team if you are building a product that redistributes fonts, since some uses have specific license requirements.
Want a Different Combination?
Try the deterministic pairing generator or open the typography playground to mix your own.