8 Simple Ways to Improve Typography in
Your Designs
Antonio Carusone
Many people, designers included, think that typography consists of only
selecting a typeface, choosing a font size and whether it should be regular
or bold. For most people it ends there. But there is much more to achieving
good typography and it՚s in the details that designers often neglect.
These details give the designer total control, allowing them to create
beautiful and consistent typography in their designs. While these details
can be applied across different types of media, in this articles we՚re going
to focus on how to apply them to web design using CSS.
Here are 8 simple ways you can use CSS to improve your typography and
hence the overall usability of your designs.
1. Measure
The measure is the length of a line of type. To a reader՚s eye, long or short
lines can be tiring and distracting. A long measure disrupts the rhythm
because the reader has a hard time locating the next line of type.
The only time a narrow measure is acceptable is with a small amount of
text. For optimum readability you want the measure to be between 40 to 80
characters, including spaces. For a single-column design 65 characters is
considered ideal.