Applying Practical Typography

Applying Practical Typography

Prioritize readability over aesthetics. Choose what reinforces the meaning of the text, not what looks prettiest in isolation.

Workflow: Applying typography rules

1. Set up body text first. Choose font, point size (10–12pt print, 15–25px web), line spacing (120–145%), and line length (45–90 chars).
2. Use correct characters. Curly quotes (not straight), proper dashes (not hyphens), real ellipses, proper symbols (©, ™, ×).
3. Format with restraint. Bold or italic (not both). No underlining in print. All caps only for short runs, with 5–12% extra letterspacing. One exclamation point per document. One space between sentences.
4. Configure layout. Margins large enough for proper line length. Headings: max 3 levels, bold preferred, space above/below for emphasis. First-line indents or paragraph spacing (not both).
5. Use styles. Define paragraph and character styles for consistency and efficient global changes.

Workflow: Reviewing text for typography issues

Check for these common problems (in priority order):

1. Straight quotes instead of curly quotes or apostrophes.
2. Double spaces between sentences.
3. Hyphens used where en dashes (ranges, pairs) or em dashes (breaks) belong.
4. Bad fonts — Arial, Comic Sans, Papyrus, Copperplate, Times New Roman.
5. Underlining used for emphasis (print context).
6. Missing letterspacing on all caps or small caps text.
7. Line length too long (>90 chars) or too short (<45 chars).
8. Point size too large (12pt is often too big for print body text).
9. Fake small caps (shrunken capitals instead of real small caps).
10. Alphabetic approximations for symbols ((c), (TM), --, ...).

Key rules (summary)

Reference material

Consult these for detailed guidance on specific topics:

• Characters and symbols (quotes, dashes, ellipses, spaces, accents, math symbols, trademark/copyright): references/01-characters-and-symbols.md
• Text formatting (bold/italic, caps, small caps, underlining, color, kerning, letterspacing, ligatures, OpenType): references/02-text-formatting.md
• Body text and paragraphs (point size, line spacing, line length, indents, paragraph spacing, hyphenation, styles): references/03-body-text-and-paragraphs.md
• Page layout and structure (margins, headings, tables, grids, columns, lists, page breaks, widow/orphan control): references/04-page-layout-and-structure.md
• Font selection (professional vs system fonts, bad fonts, mixing, monospaced, alternate figures): references/05-font-selection.md
• Document types (emails, presentations, résumés, research papers, business cards, letterhead, websites, responsive design): references/06-document-types.md

To search for a specific topic across all references:

grep -i "your_topic" references/*.md

When NOT to use this skill

• Code formatting, Markdown syntax, or technical documentation conventions (those follow different rules)
• Plain-text-only contexts where typographic characters are unavailable (e.g., terminal output, log files)