A skill that makes Claude choose type the way a senior typographer does, one stage at a time, with you deciding at each fork. It writes a brief that ranks where the type will appear by how much text each place carries, and finds your longest and hardest text. It gives every face a job, then builds three pairings that differ for a reason, each with a free Google Fonts or Fontshare option, a paid upgrade where your budget allows, measured x-heights and a licence line. After you choose, it works out a type scale for screen and print, sets a specimen in your own words, runs fourteen checks and hands over a spec, CSS tokens and design tool styles.
Inside are five reference files. One holds x-heights, widths, italics and figure styles measured from the files of 77 Google Fonts families, honest verdicts on the pairings every template uses, and ten voices with a free pairing and a paid upgrade each. One summarises what Google Fonts, Fontshare, Adobe Fonts and paid foundry licences allow for desktop, web, apps and logos, with sources checked on 17 October 2026. Others cover scales, line height, tracking, WCAG 2.2 and phone type sizes, the specimen and handoff, and a full worked example for an invented tinned-fish brand. Claude never quotes a font price or a measurement from memory, and never assumes your languages.
It needs code execution switched on to measure fonts, compute the scale, check contrast and build the specimen. The HTML specimen loads Google Fonts in your own browser, because Claude's sandbox may not reach the internet. Claude cannot download paid fonts, so for a paid face you upload a file your licence allows, or set its build sheet in Figma or InDesign and share a screenshot. Its licence summaries are not legal advice, and it will ask rather than guess the minimum type size for a food or cosmetic label. Bring your longest real headline, a real paragraph and a few prices, and say how many people will install the fonts.
Claude skill · version 1.0
Type pairing
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In the download · 9 files
- SKILL.mdThe method Claude follows: six stages from the brief to roles, three compared pairings, a screen and print scale, a specimen with fourteen checks, then the spec, CSS tokens, styles and licence list.
- README.mdHow to install it in claude.ai or Claude Code, how to start, and the licence.
- references/worked-example.mdA full run for an invented tinned-fish brand, from brief to licence list, with every width, size and wrap computed from the real font files.
- references/licensing.mdWhat Google Fonts, Fontshare, Adobe Fonts and paid foundry licences allow for desktop, web, apps, ads and logos, the five questions to ask, and the licence line format, checked 17 October 2026.
- references/pairing-library.mdHow a pairing works, x-heights, widths, italics and figure styles measured for 77 Google Fonts families, honest verdicts on common pairings, ten voices with free and paid pairings, and code to measure any font.
- references/scale-and-spacing.mdBase size from x-height, ratios, fluid CSS sizes, line height, tracking, line length, weight, WCAG 2.2 figures, iOS and Android type styles, print sizes and code that builds the scale.
Install it and begin
01Install it in Claude CodeTerminal mkdir -p ~/.claude/skillsunzip ~/Downloads/type-pairing.zip -d ~/.claude/skills/# Start it with /type-pairing. If this is your first skill, type /reload-skills once.On claude.ai there is nothing to unzip: upload the zip as it is. Every step is on Install and use a Claude skill.
02Your first message to ClaudeText Use the type pairing skill. I need type for [BRAND OR PROJECT NAME], used on [WHERE, FOR EXAMPLE SITE, PACKAGING AND INSTAGRAM]. The voice is [THREE WORDS, OR THIS NOT THAT]. Budget is [FREE ONLY, OR PAID ALLOWED]. Fonts we already use: [FONT NAMES, OR NONE]. Start with the brief and tell me what is missing.Attach your logo, brand guide or a screenshot of your current type, and have your longest real headline and a real paragraph ready. Switch on code execution so Claude can measure fonts and build the specimen.
Side by side
Three pairings for one tin of sardines
| Close: Libre Caslon with Libre Franklin | Recommended: Young Serif with Hanken Grotesk | Bold: Anton with Source Serif 4 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| The one contrast | A fine Caslon serif against a plain American sans | A heavy, soft serif against a plain grotesque | Condensed heavy capitals against a book serif |
| x-height agreement | Caslon Text 0.524 and Franklin 0.530, 1% apart | Young Serif 0.500 and Hanken 0.493, 1% apart | Anton is set in capitals, so it is matched by cap height instead |
| Italics and weights | The display cut has no italic; Caslon Text and Franklin both have real italics | Young Serif has one weight and no italic, so it stays in headlines; Hanken runs 100 to 900 with italics | Anton has one weight and no italic; Source Serif 4 runs 200 to 900 with italics and optical sizes |
| Figures for prices | Franklin has no tabular figures, so prices move to Caslon Text | Hanken is tabular by default; Young Serif is switched to lining figures | Source Serif 4 is tabular by default; Anton has no tabular figures |
| Hardest text: a 31-character product name at 24pt on a 252pt tin front | 288pt wide, so two lines | 390pt wide, so the fish name leads and the rest becomes a small capitals line underneath | 297pt wide in capitals, so two lines |
| Honest risk | Looks like every heritage tin on the shelf | All emphasis has to come from Hanken | Reads as a brewery, and capitals tire in long names |
| Verdict | Safe, and disappears on the shelf | Chosen: it sounds like the founders' notes, and both faces are free in Google Slides | Memorable, and wrong for a recipe zine |
From the skill's worked example for Saltmarsh Provisions, a fictional tinned-fish brand. Every number was measured from the Google Fonts files, and all three pairings are free under the SIL Open Font License.
What to do it with
- ClaudeFree tier, paid above it
A language model that writes, edits, reads long documents and runs tools, including agents that work inside a codebase.
Bad at It is agreeable by default, so it will improve a bad idea instead of telling you it is bad. Ask it to argue against you and the quality of the answer changes.
- Claude CodeSubscription
An agent that reads a whole repository, edits files, runs the tests and explains what it changed.
Bad at It is fast enough to make a large mistake quickly. Work on a branch, read the diff, and never let it push. Watch the starting mode: on Pro, Max and Team plans it opens in auto mode, which Anthropic's own list says may read a .env file and send the key in it to the API that key belongs to. Switch it off.
- Google FontsFree
Open-licensed typefaces, hosted and self-hostable, covering many scripts.
Bad at Quality is uneven across the catalogue, and the defaults are the most-used type on earth.
- FontshareFree
Free, properly drawn typefaces, licensed for commercial use.
Bad at A small library, and the popular families are now everywhere, which costs you distinctiveness.
- FigmaFree tier, paid above it
The shared file where interface design happens: components, variables, prototypes and the handoff to code.
Bad at Its generative features make plausible screens rather than considered ones, and a plausible screen is the hardest kind to argue with in a review.
- InDesignSubscription
Long documents, grids, parent pages and print-ready output.
Bad at Its AI makes pictures and words, not layouts, and Generative Expand has handled linked images and colour profiles badly.
- CanvaFree tier, paid above it
Templates, brand kits and generation in one place, built so a non-designer can produce something acceptable.
Bad at Acceptable is the ceiling as well as the floor. Its templates are so widely used that a trained eye dates a deck in a second.
- WhatTheFontFree
Identifies a typeface from a photograph of it.
Bad at It will confidently name a close relative rather than the actual face, and it only knows what its own shop sells.
Why it matters
Ask a chat what goes with your headline font and you get Playfair Display with Inter, x-heights nobody checked, a body face with no tabular figures for your prices, and a cheerful yes to putting an Adobe Fonts typeface in your app. This skill makes Claude measure before it recommends, test the pairing on your real words, give every face a job and a licence line, and ask how the fonts will be used before anyone buys one.
- Type
- technique
- Period
- ongoing