5 min read
A type scale you can say out loud
If you can’t remember your type scale, neither can the developer. Mine has five steps and a rule.
If your type scale has eleven sizes with names like "body-md-alt", nobody will use it the way you meant. Developers guess, and the guesses drift.
Five steps and a rule
My scale has five sizes: small, body, lead, title and display. Each one is the previous size times 1.25, rounded to a whole pixel. That is the rule, and anyone on the team can repeat it from memory.
Line height falls as size grows: 1.6 for body, 1.1 for display. Letter spacing tightens a little on the big sizes and opens a little on small caps labels.
Why it holds up
When the rule fits in one sentence, new screens follow it without a review. The scale outlives the project, which is the whole point of having one.
