Grato & Gratimo Super-Family

The geometric sans-serif typeface Grato Grotesk on a mobile phone in a headline and pull quote. The friendlier humanist typeface Gratimo Classic in body text, and Gratimo Grotesk in the labels of a button and navigation.

Sans-serif typeface super-family

by Jakob Runge and Mona Franz at TypeMates

42 styles

Grato Grotesk & Grato Classic: in 9 weights each, Hair to Super
Gratimo Grotesk & Gratimo Classic: in 6 weights each, xLight to Black with matching italics

License for web/app usage

Single: from € 59 (web), € 236 (app)
One Family: from € 399 (web), € 1200 (app)

Best for

Headings (display text)
Long reading text (body text)
User Interfaces (functional text)

Specialty

You’ll always have the best style for any size and application.

Get Grato & Gratimo at ILT

My thoughts on Grato & Gratimo

You know I love a good type family, because for more complex projects it gives you so many possibilities to always pick the appropriate style for a specific situation, and in the end it will all work nicely together. This is what I appreciate at Grato and Gratimo by Jakob Runge at TypeMates.

Grato is made for display text, like a title or a heading. It comes in two styles, the cool geometric Grato Grotesk, and the more humanist friendly Grato Classic with sharply cut terminals and apexes. I see Grato Grotesk as a great alternative to the widely popular and overused Montserrat.

Grato Grotesk is very geometric, Grato Classic is less geometric — How geometric do you want to be? Grato Grotesk and Grato Classic are made for larger sizes to fit together, but with slightly different vibes.

The Gratimo Family is made for smaller sizes, which means it’s optimized for body text and functional text in UIs and apps. This is also the reason why it comes with italic and Grato does not. Here you can also choose between the more geometric feel of Gratimo Grotesk and Gratimo Classic with a softer, more humanist touch, like a Gill Sans or Arpona Sans. If you want to dig more into this, the process and concept is beautifully shown and described in this article by TypeMates.

Some body text set in the more geometric Gratimo Grotesk — Gratimo Grotesk is still very geometric, but optimized for long reading text.

Gratimo Classic seems a bit warmer. Compare the two paragraphs, and you’ll see what I mean.

Now, should you mix the Classic and Grotesk styles? I’m actually not certain about this. In the title image I used Grotesk for the headings, quote and functional text, and the classic for the body text. I think it works just fine, however Jakob, the design, has not intended it to be mixed. In the end, you decide if it fits. So, what do you think about this? And is Grato or Gratimo something for an upcoming project? Tell me in the comments below!

One Comment

Jana says:

9. Jul 2021 at 15:53

Well, I agree with Jakob. It’s not an ideal mix of Classic & Grotesk. But separately, it’s useful, mild, somewhat sweet, simple, friendly font. The place where I see it works best is functional UI for microcopy. It doesn’t look sterile, it has spirit. It will add a humanistic feeling in otherwise all look-alike-designed websites. Grotesk reminds me of Karla, a little, hm? I’m especially in love with the lower cases.
Oliver, you don’t need to blew us every time with some exceptional display, headings. This one is pretty fine. Applause for Grato!