Typography

Apply Practical Typography-inspired rules to make text more readable and professional across print docs and web pages.

Read references/practical-typography-checklist.md before making recommendations. Use it as the source of truth for numeric targets and audit checks.

Workflow

1. Determine Medium And Constraints

• Identify medium: print, web, or mixed.
• Capture hard constraints: mandated font, page count, brand system, accessibility requirements, language support.
• If constraints conflict with ideal typography, prioritize constraints and document tradeoffs.

2. Set Body Text First

• Choose font, point size, line spacing, and line length before tuning headings.
• Start with targets from references/practical-typography-checklist.md:
  • Print: 10-12 pt body text.
  • Web: 15-25 px equivalent body text.
  • Line spacing: 120-145% of body size.
  • Line length: 45-90 characters including spaces.
• Adjust by eye for the specific typeface because equal point sizes do not look equally large across fonts.

3. Audit Style Mechanics

• Replace straight quotes with curly quotes where appropriate.
• Enforce one space between sentences and avoid repeated whitespace.
• Avoid underline except links.
• Use bold or italic sparingly; avoid combining both unless required.
• Use dashes, ellipses, apostrophes, and inch/foot marks correctly.

4. Tune Hierarchy And Paragraph Flow

• Use a restrained heading scale; avoid oversized display jumps.
• Use either first-line indents or paragraph spacing for body flow, not both.
• Use centered text and all-caps only for short, intentional fragments.
• For justified text, require hyphenation.

5. Deliver Actionable Output

• Provide one of:
  • Typography audit (issues, severity, and fixes)
  • Direct CSS/style-token rewrite
  • Document-formatting change list (Word/Pages/Docs steps)
• Include before/after values for every numeric change and one sentence of rationale per change.

Output Format

Return output in this order:

1. Context summary (medium and constraints).
2. Findings table with Issue, Current, Target, Reason.
3. Patch plan or direct edits.
4. Residual risks and tradeoffs.

Guardrails

• Preserve voice and semantics; modify form, not meaning.
• Prefer minimal, high-leverage changes before broad redesign.
• Do not invent font availability; verify installed or licensed fonts before naming specific families.
• If a strict design system exists, adapt these rules to that system instead of overriding it.
• If accessibility conflicts arise, prioritize legibility and stated accessibility requirements.