Chicago Tribune website

Founded in 1847, the Chicago Tribune is the daily newspaper for Chicago and the Great Lakes region. But it draws way beyond: it ranks sixth with regards to its nationwide circulation across the United States.

The newspaper’s website was redesigned in 2022 and since then displays a mix of three typefaces. Matthew Carter’s Georgia is the roman in use for reading texts. It is paired with Steve Matteson’s Open Sans for categories, dates, author names, and other navigational items and meta data.

What adds a spark of flavor and finesse to the site is Spectral by Production Type. This serif family is being used for headlines, lead-ins and snippets, mainly in three of its seven weights (Regular, Medium Bold). It was designed by Jean-Baptiste Levée, specifically with the use for Google Docs and Sheets in mind. As such, it’s a formidable choice for on-screen reading. Since Spectral was originally designed for medium to small text sizes, it is relatively loosely spaced. The designers of the Chicago Tribune reduced the letter spacing via CSS, finetuning the balance of black and white so that it is appropriate again for their use in slightly larger sizes.

Spectral was selected by Awwwards as one of the top recommended Google Web Fonts.