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Merriweather Sans

The low-contrast, semi-condensed sans companion to Merriweather, drawn to stay readable at very small sizes.

Sans Serif 12 styles · variable by Sorkin Type OFL

Download family 484 KB Type your own text

Merriweather Sans is a semi-condensed, low-contrast sans serif designed by Eben Sorkin of Sorkin Type for reading at very small sizes. Merriweather Sans is a variable font with a weight axis from 300 to 800, six named weights and italics, 12 styles in all. It is licensed under the SIL Open Font License 1.1.

Merriweather Sans font preview card
Preview drawn by trendhub from the font files.
Designer
Sorkin Type
Classification
Sans Serif
License
SIL Open Font License 1.1
Styles
12 6 weights, with italics
Variable font
Yes Weight 300–800
Glyphs
1,163
Languages checked
25 see the list
Last updated
version 2.001
Used for
Body textInterfacesEditorial

Official source: Google Fonts. Facts on this page were read from the font files and the source’s published data.

Try Merriweather Sans

Sample text

Type over the sample to test your own words. The preview loads a Latin subset of Merriweather Sans; the download contains the complete files.

Merriweather Sans font specimen: alphabet, numerals and weights
Merriweather Sans specimen: alphabet, numerals and weights. Image drawn by trendhub from the font files.

Weights and styles

  • Light 300Merriweather Sans Light Light Italic
  • Regular 400Merriweather Sans Regular Italic
  • Medium 500Merriweather Sans Medium Medium Italic
  • SemiBold 600Merriweather Sans SemiBold SemiBold Italic
  • Bold 700Merriweather Sans Bold Bold Italic
  • ExtraBold 800Merriweather Sans ExtraBold ExtraBold Italic

Merriweather Sans is a variable font: the download holds the whole weight range in one file per style, and the named weights above are positions on that range.

About Merriweather Sans

Merriweather Sans is a sans serif text family that Eben Sorkin designed for comfortable reading at very small sizes. Its makers point to four traits, a large x-height, somewhat condensed letters, open forms and a mild diagonal stress, and call it traditional in feeling despite shapes adapted to screens. The specimen agrees: stroke ends are sheared at an angle, the a is two-storey, and the letters are narrow enough to fit a long name on one line. The family is a variable font with a weight axis from 300 to 800. Six weights are named, Light to ExtraBold, each with an italic, for 12 styles. The fonts hold 1,163 glyphs and cover Latin, Latin Extended and Vietnamese. It was built to harmonise with the serif Merriweather family. The license is the SIL Open Font License 1.1.

Where Merriweather Sans works

Small interface text
A large x-height and open forms were chosen so that labels, hints and legal lines stay readable when set tiny.
Narrow columns and mobile layouts
Slightly condensed letters fit more words per line on a phone screen or in a sidebar.
Sans companion to a serif text
Weights and styles were drawn to harmonise with Merriweather, so captions and navigation can sit beside serif paragraphs.
Body copy with real italics
All six weights have a drawn italic, which covers emphasis at Light as well as at ExtraBold.

Glyphs

!"#$%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~¡¢

Latin and Latin Extended characters in the preview subset; the complete family has 1,163 glyphs.

Language support

The family contains the core letters these languages are written with:

  • English
  • French
  • German
  • Spanish
  • Portuguese
  • Italian
  • Dutch
  • Swedish
  • Norwegian
  • Danish
  • Finnish
  • Icelandic
  • Catalan
  • Turkish
  • Polish
  • Czech
  • Slovak
  • Hungarian
  • Romanian
  • Croatian
  • Slovenian
  • Lithuanian
  • Latvian
  • Estonian
  • Vietnamese

Character sets found in the files: latin, latin-ext, vietnamese. The language list is a check of required letters against the font, not a promise of typographic quality in each language.

License

SIL Open Font License 1.1Copyright 2019 The Merriweather Project Authors (https://github.com/SorkinType/Merriweather-Sans) with Reserved Font Name 'Merriweather'

What the license allows

  • Use the fonts in personal and commercial work, in print, on the web and in apps.
  • Modify the fonts and build new versions from them.
  • Redistribute the fonts, on their own or bundled with software, as long as the license text and copyright notice go with them.

Conditions

  • The fonts cannot be sold by themselves.
  • A modified version must stay under the same license and cannot use a Reserved Font Name without the copyright holder's permission.
  • The authors' names cannot be used to promote a modified version without permission.

This is a short summary, not legal advice. The license text decides: read the full OFL text. A copy is included in the download.

Fonts that pair with Merriweather Sans

Merriweather Serif

Merriweather is the serif counterpart by the same designer; the two families were drawn to harmonise in weight and style.

Suggestions come from simple rules on the records: a contrasting classification and enough weights to carry body text. They are a starting point, not a verdict.

Use Merriweather Sans on the web

Download the family and host the files on your own site, then declare them in CSS. Please do not link to the files on trendhub.net: preview files here are subsets and their addresses change.

CSS, self-hosted
@font-face {
  font-family: "Merriweather Sans";
  src: url("/assets/fonts/MerriweatherSans-Italic-VariableFont_wght.ttf") format("truetype");
  font-weight: 300 800;
  font-style: italic;
  font-display: swap;
}
@font-face {
  font-family: "Merriweather Sans";
  src: url("/assets/fonts/MerriweatherSans-VariableFont_wght.ttf") format("truetype");
  font-weight: 300 800;
  font-style: normal;
  font-display: swap;
}

body {
  font-family: "Merriweather Sans", sans-serif;
}

Or load it from the official source. Google Fonts serves Merriweather Sans with this markup:

HTML, Google Fonts

Things to know

Range is Light to ExtraBold
The weight axis covers 300 to 800. There is no Thin and no Black.
No Cyrillic
No Cyrillic subset is present, so the letters needed for Russian are not among the character sets.
Style count has grown
The official description still speaks of an earlier, smaller set of styles; the current fonts name six weights in roman and italic.

FAQs

Is Merriweather Sans free for commercial use?

Yes. Merriweather Sans is published under the SIL Open Font License 1.1, which allows use in personal and commercial work, modification and redistribution. The fonts cannot be sold on their own, and modified versions stay under the same license.

Who designed Merriweather Sans?

Merriweather Sans was designed by Eben Sorkin and is credited to Sorkin Type.

How many weights does Merriweather Sans have?

Merriweather Sans has six weights, Light 300 to ExtraBold 800, each with an italic, which makes 12 styles.

Is Merriweather Sans a variable font?

Yes. Merriweather Sans is a variable font with one variable axis, weight, from 300 to 800, in upright and italic files.

Which languages does Merriweather Sans support?

Merriweather Sans includes the letters needed for English and other Latin-script languages such as French, German, Turkish, Polish, Romanian and Vietnamese.

What fonts pair well with Merriweather Sans?

Merriweather, the serif family by the same designer, is the intended partner: Merriweather Sans was drawn to harmonise with its weights and styles.

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Collections with Merriweather Sans

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