Font Pairing Dataset

Typeface Taxonomy — Professional Intake

In development: the pairing web app itself doesn't exist yet — this form and the data it collects are part of an early prototype. Nothing submitted here is live on a public website, and any font files or usage permissions you provide won't be used until the tool is actually built.

How can we create a tool that shows students (and maybe professionals) great font pairing examples? This form attempts to capture the structural attributes that could power an automated font-pairing tool: contrast, proportions, serif construction, and overall letterform geometry. The tool uses these attributes to recommend typeface combinations, so the accuracy of each entry has a direct effect on the quality of its suggestions.

Note the scope of each entry: a typeface family (e.g. "Playfair Display") can include many individual fonts — Regular, Bold, Italic, and so on — that differ in proportion and construction. Every field below describes one specific font within that family, not the family as a whole. Use "Style Evaluated" to record exactly which one you're describing.

If you would like your typeface added to the font pairing tool, please answer the questions with the Regular weight of the typeface in mind.

Submissions will be merged into the shared taxonomy dataset. Teaching professionals, if you would like access to the form that is used for students, please reach out to aherstowski@ku.edu.

Contributor

Enter your name.

Enter your email address.

Identity

The typeface family name.

Enter the font's name.

Defaults to Regular per the guidance above — change it only if you're intentionally describing a different weight.

Enter the specific style or weight evaluated.

Auto-filled from the name; edit if you want something different.

Enter a unique slug.

The person or team who designed the typeface — not necessarily the foundry that publishes it.

Classification

Are the underlying forms humanist ↔ geometric?

HumanistGeometric

Choose a structure value.

Choose a category.

Choose at least one.

Single-story: a circle with a tail. Double-story: a looped top over a bowl.

Single-story: open tail. Double-story: closed loop (ear-and-bowl).

Choose a sub-classification.

We understand the limitations of the Vox-ATypI classification system — please use whichever classification best fits your typeface, and use "Other" above to write in your own if none of these feel right.

Use "None" for sans-serif fonts with no serif to classify.

Choose a serif style, or "None" for sans-serif.

Does this typeface have a sibling version in a different classification (e.g. Meta Sans and Meta Serif)?

Choose yes or no.

Proportions & Shape

Choose a width.

Overall geometry of bowls and counters, independent of width.

Choose an overall glyph shape.

How the x-height reads relative to the cap-height.

Choose an x-height.

Choose a stress axis.

Construction Details

Describes the amount of thick/thin stroke variation — none to extreme.

Low ContrastHigh Contrast

Choose a contrast value.

Based on Gerrit Noordzij's model of how stroke contrast is mechanically generated, independent of how much contrast there is. "Translation" = constant pen angle, broad-nib construction. "Expansion" = contrast from pressure change rather than angle, pointed-pen construction. "None" = no meaningful contrast to characterize (monolinear).

Choose an aperture.

Ball: ends in a small, precise circular dot (e.g. Bodoni). Teardrop / Lachrymal: ends in a softer, teardrop-shaped drop rather than a perfect circle. Finial: a curved, gracefully narrowing end, often on the tail of a lowercase "c" or "e". Beak: a sharp, pointed, serif-like spur off the end of a stroke. Straight-Cut / Flat: cut at a hard 90° angle to the stroke. Angled / Diagonal: cut on a slant rather than straight across. Rounded: a soft, semi-circular end, common in humanist sans-serif. Choose "Varied" if the font mixes multiple treatments without one clearly predominating.

Choose a terminal style.

Usage

Select every numeric weight the family ships.

Select at least one weight.

Choose yes or no.

Total named styles (weights × italics × widths combined).

Enter the number of styles in the family.

Check all that apply.

Web App Usage Permissions (Optional)

This section is entirely optional. It only covers whether we can use your typeface in our web app (the pairing tool) — it has nothing to do with the taxonomy data above. Reminder: the tool is still just a prototype, so no font files or permissions submitted here are in live use yet.

A rendered preview or specimen only — we would not distribute the font files themselves.

The actual font files embedded so it renders live and is editable in the pairing tool.

Additional Notes