Inter and Tinos Font Pairing

Inter at 700 for headings with Tinos for body text sets a crisp modern sans serif over a familiar Times-style serif. Tinos is metrically compatible with Times New Roman, so the body has a traditional, document-like feel, while bold Inter headings make the page look current and organized. It is a practical choice for resumes and business sites that should read as serious and reliable.

Why Inter and Tinos Work Together

Inter, led by Rasmus Andersson, was designed for screens, with a tall x-height and clean, neutral shapes. At 700 it produces compact, solid headings with clear spacing. Tinos, designed by Steve Matteson, is a serif built to match the widths of Times New Roman while improving on-screen readability. It has the narrow proportions, moderate stroke contrast and sharp serifs that readers associate with printed reports and letters.

The pairing borrows its logic from well-designed documents: a strong sans serif for structure and a bookish serif for content. Inter’s even strokes contrast clearly with the thick and thin rhythm of Tinos, so headings and text never blur. Because Tinos is fairly narrow, it fits plenty of words on a line, which suits dense pages such as resumes and service descriptions.

Where Inter and Tinos Work Best

On a resume, Inter headings for your name, section titles and job titles give the page a clean scaffold, and Tinos keeps descriptions familiar to recruiters who read hundreds of documents. Since Tinos shares the widths of Times New Roman, a layout drafted in Times keeps similar line breaks. On a business site, such as a law office, accounting firm or consultancy, the pair looks established and orderly without feeling old-fashioned.

Weights and Sizes to Use

Set Inter at 700 for headings and 600 for smaller subheadings; it runs from 100 to 900. Keep heading line height at 1.15 to 1.2 and consider slightly negative letter spacing, about minus 0.01em, at large sizes. Tinos comes in only two weights, 400 and 700, each with an italic, so use 400 for body and 700 for bold. Set it at 17 or 18px on screen with a line height of 1.55 to 1.65, since Times-style serifs look small at a given pixel size.

Things to Watch

The biggest risk is a size mismatch: Inter’s tall x-height makes it look much larger than Tinos at the same size. Keep body text a step larger than you might expect, and make sure Inter subheadings do not overpower the text. With only two weights in Tinos, there is no light or semibold option, so build hierarchy with size and Inter’s weights. Generous spacing keeps the layout looking deliberate.