Trade Gothic Next® Perfect Font Pairings
FOUNDRY: Linotype
DESIGNER: Jackson Burke, Akira Kobayashi, and Tom Grace
CLASSIFICATION: Sans Serif Grotesque
ABOUT THE FAMILY
- The first Trade Gothic typefaces were released in the late 1940s, by Jackson Burke. They were condensed sans popular for “trade” work, and were just named “Gothic” with numeric suffixes. Later, regular-proportioned versions emerged, leading to the unified name “Trade Gothic” for the family.
- Akira Kobayashi, Monotype’s Creative Type Director, with the aid of Tom Grace, updated the original Trade Gothic designs, in 2008. While preserving the original’s distinctive character, their revision is a significantly more versatile typographic tool.
- The extended Trade Gothic Next family also has Soft Rounded and Rust versions.
WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN FONTS THAT PAIR WELL WITH TRADE GOTHIC NEXT
For best results, pair Trade Gothic Next with typefaces that have the following characteristics:
- Serif typefaces – especially those with high levels of legibility Slab Serif or Clarendon typefaces featuring humanistic nuances.
- Old Style typefaces such as Palatino® Nova or Frutiger® Serif.
- Avoid sans serif fonts; however, some like Frutiger® Next or Palatino® Sans can pair well with Trade Gothic Next– if the weights of the two typefaces differ significantly.
TRADE GOTHIC NEXT PAIRING WITH DISPLAY FONTS
TRADE GOTHIC NEXT PAIRING WITH TEXT FONTS
Download a PDF version of the Trade Gothic Next Perfect Font Pairings and view the Trade Gothic Next font family.
Explore Other Font Pairing Guides
DIN Next Slab harmonizes seamlessly with DIN Next – sharing basic letterforms and weights – not only in headlines and body text but also within the same text copy block.
Dating back to the late 19th century, DIN (Deutsches Institut für Normung) is the original ‘industrial strength’ sans-serif typeface. Initially created to identify railroad cars, DIN became the standard typeface for highway signage, house numbers, and engineering applications for decades.