Compare
Switch between them
The same piece of the homepage, set four ways. Watch what happens to the weight of the page as a whole — that is the decision, not whether the letters are handsome on their own.
Makkah Masjid Bolton
A place of worship, spiritual reflection and community gathering — a pillar of faith in Bolton for those seeking peace, guidance and a deeper connection with Allah (SWT).
Support the masjid
Every donation goes to the running of the building, the madrassah and the funeral service. Sadaqah jariyah — a charity that keeps giving after you have gone.
What we offer
Daily Prayers · Friday Prayer · Madrassah · Janazah Service
وَتَعَاوَنُوا عَلَى الْبِرِّ وَالتَّقْوَى
Each face is set at its own size so the comparison is fair. Poppins has an unusually large x-height, so at the same pixel size all three serifs would look smaller and weaker than they really are. Measured rather than guessed: at 100px the x-heights are Poppins 56, Playfair 52, Fraunces 45, Cormorant 39. The sizes here are corrected to match.
In Detail
The four, with what is wrong with each
Poppins
What the site uses now
A house of worship,
learning and community
Prayer times for today
A geometric sans — circular bowls, even stroke weight, no serifs. The same family as the body text, so the whole page speaks in one voice.
Madrassah & Courses
Body copy stays in Poppins in every option. Only the headings change — the reading text is settled, and this is the part that is not.
وَتَعَاوَنُوا عَلَى الْبِرِّ وَالتَّقْوَى
Jumu’ah · Janazah · Venue Hire · Youth Club — at card-title size
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
0123456789 & £ — ’ ?
Fraunces
Warm, contemporary serif
A house of worship,
learning and community
Prayer times for today
A serif with a slight wobble in the curves and a worked, hand-cut look. Serious without being stiff, and with enough weight to carry a headline on its own.
Madrassah & Courses
Body copy stays in Poppins in every option. Only the headings change — the reading text is settled, and this is the part that is not.
وَتَعَاوَنُوا عَلَى الْبِرِّ وَالتَّقْوَى
Jumu’ah · Janazah · Venue Hire · Youth Club — at card-title size
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
0123456789 & £ — ’ ?
Cormorant Garamond
Classical, refined
A house of worship,
learning and community
Prayer times for today
An old-style serif in the Garamond tradition: high contrast between thick and thin, generous proportions, an unhurried feel. Of the four it sits closest to the proportions of calligraphy.
Madrassah & Courses
Body copy stays in Poppins in every option. Only the headings change — the reading text is settled, and this is the part that is not.
وَتَعَاوَنُوا عَلَى الْبِرِّ وَالتَّقْوَى
Jumu’ah · Janazah · Venue Hire · Youth Club — at card-title size
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
0123456789 & £ — ’ ?
Playfair Display
Editorial, high contrast
A house of worship,
learning and community
Prayer times for today
A display serif with pronounced thick-and-thin strokes, drawn from eighteenth-century English printing. Strong presence at large sizes.
Madrassah & Courses
Body copy stays in Poppins in every option. Only the headings change — the reading text is settled, and this is the part that is not.
وَتَعَاوَنُوا عَلَى الْبِرِّ وَالتَّقْوَى
Jumu’ah · Janazah · Venue Hire · Youth Club — at card-title size
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
0123456789 & £ — ’ ?
Our Recommendation
Number 2 — Fraunces
It gives the headings a voice without asking anything of the reader. Its stems are thick and the difference between its thick and thin strokes is slight, so a card title at 17px on a phone still holds together — which is exactly where options 3 and 4 struggle, because their thins break up first. It is warm rather than formal, which suits a masjid that runs a youth club and a madrassah as well as five daily prayers.
If the committee wants something more formal, number 3, Cormorant Garamond, is the one to take — but it has to be set larger and heavier throughout, and we would keep it off the smaller headings.
Nothing here is locked in. Changing the heading face later is a one-line change, and mixing is fine — a serif for page titles with Poppins for card titles is a perfectly reasonable answer.
One practical note. Every extra family is a file the visitor downloads before the page settles. All three candidates are on Google Fonts and variable or near it, so the cost is one file of roughly 25–40 KB. That is acceptable. A fourth family later would not be.
Seen enough?
Send us the number you like and we will set it across every page. Mixing options is fine.