Optical, not just mathematical
Type that aligns on paper can read as misaligned on screen. Centred paragraphs rattle at both edges; punctuation inside the text box breaks the left edge of a pull quote. These are optical faults — the maths is correct, the impression is wrong — and TYPAL flags them specifically.
Issue 04 — Typography
The quiet discipline of setting type well
Why measure, rhythm and contrast decide whether a page feels resolved
Most typographic problems are not mistakes of taste. They are small measurable things — a measure that runs too wide, leading borrowed from a different size, a hierarchy whose steps are too close together — and each one costs the reader a fraction of attention. Set them right and the page stops asking for effort.
“Typography exists to honour content.” — Robert Bringhurst
Analyse this layout
Figure 1 — Vertical rhythm across a 8px baseline grid.
632px measure~79 characters per line · recommended 45–75
Centred body text over a long paragraph forces the reader to hunt for the start of every line, and the opening quote mark hangs inside the measure instead of outside it. It is centred, but it does not look settled.
Issue 04 — Typography
The quiet discipline of setting type well
Why measure, rhythm and contrast decide whether a page feels resolved
Most typographic problems are not mistakes of taste. They are small measurable things — a measure that runs too wide, leading borrowed from a different size, a hierarchy whose steps are too close together — and each one costs the reader a fraction of attention. Set them right and the page stops asking for effort.
“Typography exists to honour content.” — Robert Bringhurst
Analyse this layout
Figure 1 — Vertical rhythm across a 8px baseline grid.
632px measure~79 characters per line · recommended 45–75
Left-aligned body keeps a rock-solid left edge and even word spacing, and the quote sets with the quotation mark hung outside the measure so the letters — not the punctuation — align.
How TYPAL checks this
- Centred alignment on any run of text longer than a couple of lines
- Quotes whose opening mark could hang outside the measure
- Right-aligned or justified text that creates uneven word spacing
- Alignment consistency across roles on the same page