Have you ever seen a text in a website that is easy for you to read that does not tire your eyes when reading it? If you have, then you have seen an art called Typography. What is typography? What kind of typography that is properly arranged?

The right kind of Typography
For a web designer, typography is the art of their design works. It is the science about the appearance of text. The purpose is to not only make the words look attractive enough to draw a conversation, but also helps text fulfill its purpose of communication. Therefore, to fulfill this purpose, the typography should convey appropriate emotion, so that a text can be easy to read. Then, how do we create a text that embodies emotion, yet easy to read?

Here are several factors you might need to know:

The Art of Readable Text
No other words can beat the art of readable text, and a readable text means getting the right size for the font, leading and measure.

You can use the following guidelines to ensure you have the right size as mentioned above:

• Make sure it is easy to read
• Set the line-height, the font-size, and the text width (typesetting)
• Begin typesetting with a page that contains users’ needed information
• The page should contain multiple elements, such as h1, h2, h3, body text and captions
• Estimate the distance between readers’ eyes and the screen for different devices
• Once everything is settled, start by selecting font-size
• Measure the line-height
• Test your typesetting choices with your audience
• Make sure everything is right and suitable
• Continue setting the sizes of other elements after finishing with typesetting the body text.

While getting the best result for the typography is important, it doesn’t mean it has to be perfect. Just do the best to convey your passion in your work.

Typesetting Other Elements
If you happen to choose the font-size for elements like h1 and h2 visually, you may need to reconsider it for these scales can’t be directly used for the web because they are built for print design. Therefore, you can use a modular scale. Construct it with the body test you’ve decided on and multiply it by a ratio numerous times until you get a scale. After constructing the modular scale, you can typeset the rest of your elements, picking a number from the scale as your font-size; then do the same process for the leading and measure setting, until you get a balance of readable elements.

Vertical Rhythm
Next, arrange the individual elements using a technique called vertical rhythm. In order for one element to flow harmoniously into the next, we need to adjust the thing that joins them up: the white space. This white space should be large enough to distinguish one element from another, but it should be small enough, so that the flow isn’t broken.

In order to get enough white space, you can use a multiple of the line-height value of your body text because we naturally recognize white space patterns within text. You can set the white space between elements to a multiple of the base line-height, and set the line-height of all other elements to a multiple of the base line-height to use the right vertical rhythm. Values like 0.5x and 1.25x of the base line-height can give you more flexibility.

Baseline grid, yes or no?
Where there is vertical rhythm, there is the concept of a baseline grid inevitably comes into the picture. Although it is helpful, it can be difficult to get the right vertical rhythm for beginners. Baseline grids can’t work perfectly on the web because the math in typography contains subpixels (like 24.8px) and the subpixels are handled differently.

Typography for Multiple Screens
There are three things needed from a design perspective. First, the distance between a user’s eyes and their screens are different depending on the device used for that. The larger and the wider the screen and the device, the more you need for the font sizes. Second, you need consistency in the proportions between the body text and other elements. When you increase the body text size, you have to increase the sizes of all elements as well. Third, you should increase the font-size of specific elements through picking a different number from the modular scale to control the visual hierarchy.

That’s all you need to learn! To sum it up, typography is the art of making a grandiose website that will not only make people effortlessly understand the texts, but also creatively convey the passion in creating it.