typeset

Assess and improve typography that feels generic, inconsistent, or poorly structured — turning default-looking text into intentional, well-crafted type.

MANDATORY PREPARATION

Users start this workflow with /typeset. Once this skill is active, load $frontend-design — it contains design principles, anti-patterns, and the Context Gathering Protocol. Follow that protocol before proceeding — if no design context exists yet, you MUST load $setup first.

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Assess Current Typography

Analyze what's weak or generic about the current type:

1. Font choices:

   • Are we using invisible defaults? (Inter, Roboto, Arial, Open Sans, system defaults)
   • Does the font match the brand personality? (A playful brand shouldn't use a corporate typeface)
   • Are there too many font families? (More than 2-3 is almost always a mess)

2. Hierarchy:

   • Can you tell headings from body from captions at a glance?
   • Are font sizes too close together? (14px, 15px, 16px = muddy hierarchy)
   • Are weight contrasts strong enough? (Medium vs Regular is barely visible)

3. Sizing & scale:

   • Is there a consistent type scale, or are sizes arbitrary?
   • Does body text meet minimum readability? (16px+)
   • Is the sizing strategy appropriate for the context? (Fixed rem scales for app UIs; fluid clamp() for marketing/content page headings)

4. Readability:

   • Are line lengths comfortable? (45-75 characters ideal)
   • Is line-height appropriate for the font and context?
   • Is there enough contrast between text and background?
   • Are italics, underlines, and all-caps being used deliberately rather than as decoration?

5. Consistency:

   • Are the same elements styled the same way throughout?
   • Are font weights used consistently? (Not bold in one section, semibold in another for the same role)
   • Is letter-spacing intentional or default everywhere?
   • Is capitalization consistent by role? (titles, buttons, labels, toasts, metadata)

CRITICAL: The goal isn't to make text "fancier" — it's to make it clearer, more readable, and more intentional. Good typography is invisible; bad typography is distracting.

Plan Typography Improvements

Consult the typography reference from the frontend-design skill for detailed guidance on scales, pairing, loading strategies, and font-selection heuristics. Consult the text hierarchy and readability for line length, line-height, alignment, baseline, label/value handling, semantic-vs-visual hierarchy, link emphasis, and numeric alignment. Consult the hierarchy checklist when typography problems are really hierarchy problems in disguise.

Treat the shared text hierarchy/readability reference as the common source for reading comfort and text-structure rules, then apply the typography-specific changes here.

Create a systematic plan:

• Font selection: Do fonts need replacing? What fits the brand/context?
• Type scale: Establish a constrained UI scale; use modular scales as inspiration, then hand-craft the actual steps you need
• Weight strategy: Which weights serve which roles? (Regular for body, Semibold for labels, Bold for headings — or whatever fits)
• Spacing: Line-heights, letter-spacing, and margins between typographic elements
• Schema: Are the typography roles documented clearly enough that future screens can stay consistent?

Improve Typography Systematically

Font Selection

If fonts need replacing:

• Choose fonts that reflect the brand personality
• Pair with genuine contrast (serif + sans, geometric + humanist) — or use a single family in multiple weights
• Prefer families with a healthy range of weights; families with more weights are usually more carefully built
• Optimize for legibility in UI text — avoid condensed display faces with short x-heights for body copy
• Ensure web font loading doesn't cause layout shift (font-display: swap, metric-matched fallbacks)

Establish Hierarchy

Build a clear type scale:

• 5-7 sizes cover most needs: caption, secondary, body, subheading, heading, display, optional eyebrow
• Use ratios to explore, then commit to real values that feel right in the interface
• Combine dimensions: Size + weight + color + space for strong hierarchy — don't rely on size alone
• Use dramatic enough weight contrast that the hierarchy is obvious; medium vs regular is often too subtle
• App UIs: Use a fixed rem-based type scale, optionally adjusted at 1-2 breakpoints. Fluid sizing undermines the spatial predictability that dense, container-based layouts need
• Marketing / content pages: Use fluid sizing via clamp(min, preferred, max) for headings and display text. Keep body text fixed

Fix Readability

• Set max-width on text containers using ch units (max-width: 65ch)
• Keep most paragraphs in the 45-75 character range
• Adjust line-height per context: tighter for headings (1.1-1.2), looser for body (1.5-1.7)
• Increase line-height as line length increases; reduce it as font size gets larger
• Increase line-height slightly for light-on-dark text
• Ensure body text is at least 16px / 1rem

Refine Details

• Use tabular-nums for data tables and numbers that should align
• Right-align numeric columns when comparison matters
• Align mixed-size text by the baseline when it appears on the same line
• Apply proper letter-spacing: slightly open for small caps and uppercase, default or slightly tighter for large display text
• Tighten headings selectively when the typeface is naturally loose at larger sizes
• Use italics sparingly: short emphasis, quotes, and testimonials are fine; long UI copy and controls are not
• Underline links and short key emphasis deliberately; do not blanket-underline dense text
• Keep capitalization consistent by role, and add tracking when using all-caps labels or metadata
• Don’t make every link bright blue by default; match link emphasis to its importance in the reading flow
• Use semantic token names (--text-body, --text-heading), not value names (--font-16)
• Set font-kerning: normal and consider OpenType features where appropriate

Weight Consistency

• Define clear roles for each weight and stick to them
• Don't use more than 3-4 weights (Regular, Medium, Semibold, Bold is plenty)
• Prefer larger jumps between roles over lots of barely different weights
• Load only the weights you actually use (each weight adds to page load)

Scale Integrity

• Use rem or px as source values for the scale, then prefer rem in implementation to respect user settings
• Avoid em-based type scales in nested UI — descendants quickly drift off-system
• If a scale needs lots of fractional sizes to work, the scale is probably too mathematical and not practical enough

NEVER:

• Use more than 2-3 font families
• Pick sizes arbitrarily — commit to a scale
• Set body text below 16px
• Use decorative/display fonts for body text
• Disable browser zoom (user-scalable=no)
• Use em to define your type scale in nested UI
• Use tiny font sizes just to create hierarchy — use weight or color first
• Center-align long-form text
• Assume a perfect mathematical ratio is better than a hand-crafted scale
• Use px for font sizes in implementation — use rem to respect user settings
• Default to Inter/Roboto/Open Sans when personality matters
• Pair fonts that are similar but not identical (two geometric sans-serifs)

Verify Typography Improvements

• Hierarchy: Can you identify heading vs body vs caption instantly?
• Readability: Is body text comfortable to read in long passages?
• Consistency: Are same-role elements styled identically throughout?
• Personality: Does the typography reflect the brand?
• Performance: Are web fonts loading efficiently without layout shift?
• Accessibility: Does text meet WCAG contrast ratios? Is it zoomable to 200%?

Remember: Typography is the foundation of interface design — it carries the majority of information. Getting it right is the highest-leverage improvement you can make.