Typography
The case for boring typography
Two typefaces, one accent, and a measure that fits the eye. Here is what stays when you remove the decoration.
Start with the reader
A page is read, not admired. The reader has a few seconds to decide whether the next paragraph is worth their time. Everything that is not the next paragraph is a cost.
Set the body in a sans at screen size. Seventeen pixels is a floor, not a style. Give lines room: a line height of 1.6 lets the eye return to the next line without searching.
Size and space create hierarchy. Color does not.
Let the serif do one job
Serif type carries the large moments: headlines, numbers, a pull quote. Below about twenty pixels it competes with the body, so it does not appear there.
- Headlines and display numbers in the serif, at weight 500.
- Everything you read or click in the sans.
- Code and hex values in the mono.
Say it in tokens
Decisions you write down once are decisions you stop re-making.
--bg: #F5F4ED;
--accent: #1C3D32;
--serif: "Source Serif 4";