Why Is It Difficult to Stick With a Predefined Typography System
Odd Questions on Design and Typography
Sometimes asking an odd question helps clarify things for me. Here is one: why is it difficult to stick with a predefined typography system?
I have been using a few design system for professional work, and I find it very hard to stick with the typography guidelines. The part I have the most problem with is the limit of font size options.
There are two facets of font size: the size you specify in the number of pixel or points, and the size you sense when looking at it. Most of design system’s typography section will provide a list of text styles, specified with exact font size, font weight, and font style. While this ensures the text to be mathematically the same, it doesn’t guarantee it looks the same, because size in design composition is established by comparison and relativity.
In one design system, the label text style has to be 12px precisely, however, I often find in need of setting them bigger when put next to bigger title text. When I change the font size, it still looks stylistically consistent, because it shares the same typographic look.
Typography system should define typographic look rather than strict text styles. An 18px size title will look big enough next to a 12px size paragraph text, and look too small next to a 16px subtitle or label text. 18px size text will also be physically different size when displaying at mobile screen vs. computer screen. For digital design, the absolute value of size and other attributes of typesetting doesn’t matter as long as the text style share the same typographic look. Font size is the least defining characteristics of typographic look, and typography system should feel safe to define it in a range rather than one singular number.
