Establishing a type ramp and vertical rhythm

Description

Doing quick search for font-size on the stylesheets results in 30 unique values (in pixels, rems, or percentages).

Reducing the number of different type sizes:

  • Creates a more consistent experience
  • Reduces the complexity for designers and developers, resulting in fewer errors and less technical/design debt

Establishing a proper type ramp improves contrast and readability, resulting in a much satisfying experience.

Proposal

Changes:

  • Increase contrast between heading sizes, and between H1s and issue/merge request titles
  • Increase base markdown font-size from 14px to 16px (read Your Body Text Is Too Small)
  • Introduce an 8px grid, for all measures (sizes, spaces and strokes), and a 4px type baseline (read The 8-Point Grid, Intro to the 8-Point Grid System, and 8 point Soft Grids)
  • Tweak line-heights, spacing and overall vertical rhythm according to the grid system

Measures

image

Content/markdown areas (including comments)

For the proposal to work properly, spacing around the text areas should also be revised. Screenshots were taken with pedroms/public-project#2 (closed)

Current Proposed
image image

User interface

Current Proposed
Screen_Shot_2017-06-01_at_18.20.30 Screen_Shot_2017-06-01_at_18.20.20

Spec Files

  • UI Typography: https://gitlab-org.gitlab.io/gitlab-design/hosted/gitlab-elements-spec-previews/#artboard22
  • Markdown: https://gitlab-org.gitlab.io/gitlab-design/hosted/gitlab-elements-spec-previews/#artboard7
  • Compact Markdown: https://gitlab-org.gitlab.io/gitlab-design/hosted/gitlab-elements-spec-previews/#artboard8

Links / references

  • Related to [meta] Evolving the GitLab Visual Personality
  • Mathematical Web Typography
  • A More Modern Scale for Web Typography
  • Your Body Text Is Too Small
  • The 8-Point Grid
  • Intro to the 8-Point Grid System
  • 8 point Soft Grids
Edited Mar 16, 2018 by Taurie Davis
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