Sketch Type Symbols

First off, what are Sketch Type Symbols ?

Well, it’s quite easy to explain. They are layers of type, that have been converted into Symbols for flexibility and to allow better on-the-fly control over type styles.

Nowadays, a lot of designers are collaborating on joint projects, either by using an already thought out Design System, or by creating one from Scratch.

So how does that affect Sketch Type Symbols and how can they help me ?

That is a fair question. Whenever you’re working with developers, fellow designers, or even project Stakeholders, chances are, you’re going to run into meeting that require you, as the designer, to show some variation of type on a particular bit of UX or UI you’ve created.

This is when Sketch Type Symbols come into play. They allow you to change Font Family, Font color and Font Weight on the fly.

Type symbols vs Type Styles

Why use type Symbols when you can use Styles ? Where’s the sense in that ?

Well, there is a fundamental difference in intended usage.

First off, Sketch Font Styles is convoluted at best, and hard to maintain at worst. Its major advantage, is also its own worst enemy.

What the hell are you on about ?

Let me give you a bit of information to clarify things. Font Styles relies on a single “instance” to propagate change across all your designs. While this is certainly useful if you have a few font weights, it’s probably not going to help you if you’re going to be dealing with a large web app or website which is using tens of font-weights and styles.

Additionally, if you’re working in a design team that has a single library-type file to work with, it’s not possible to do so with layer styles without help from plugins or copy-pasting. Which is annoying at best.

Working with Embedded Type allows you to build a design library that’s shaped and well maintained, in addition to working across documents. Something that Font and Layer styles just cannot do. (Would be great if you could save layer and font styles to external files like in PS or AI)

Let me give you a rough Comparison between using Styles and Symbols.

Exhibit A: Styles

Holy Shit that’s a lot of styles. Finding the one you need is a huge pain in the scroll.

Exhibit B: Text Symbols

Select your Symbol

Selecting EXACTLY what you want. Ain’t it cool to be organized ?

Why ?

You would need to double up on all styles for any extra color you would use, and the Font Style UI bits in Sketch are not exactly great if you want to find a specific Weight and Family + Color combo from a huge sea of Styles. If you’re like me, you’ll probably want to be able to organise them by folders or cathegories, which you can do with Embedded Type Symbols.

Hmm. Ok. I’m sold. Tell me more !

Sure thing. Let’s see how do we actually do this and how it can become beneficial…

But first, let’s create some rules.

Wait, why ?

Well, as you’re going to find out working later on, pinning and setting up your symbol stretching & resizing, will be beneficial throughout your project, so it’s a good thing to do it as early on as possible. Just to avoid trouble later on.

1. Thou shall Pin/Set up your symbols.

Set up your pinning to make it easier to stretch out your symbol, later on,

When I deal with Titles, I make sure to always use fixed alignment as you can see above.

I like to keep things tight and tidy and, as often as possible, highly flexible. That’s why I usually end up only needing to use the align to mid option for the font. I found the other 2 are seldom useful for me.

2. Thou shall use folders.

Folders are SO USEFUL. Always use folders ! They can keep the mess that is a huge Library or Symbol file organised, so that it makes sense.

Adding a / after anything, creates a folder. Anything coming after a / added into that folder.

Example: I have 3 font weights all using the same color. All using the same font family.

There are several approaches to this.

1. [Fonts] / [Font Family Name] / [Font Weight] + [Font Color]
2. [Fonts] / [Font Family Name] / [Font Weight] / [Font Alignment] / [Font Size] + Color

Variations of the above. In the end it depends on how granular you really want to go and control your fonts. In my experience, the deeper, the better. But it’s all up to you really.

Now we have all those rules all set up. Let’s see how this is actually working out for us, shall we ?

The how part

If you’re an experienced Sketcher, you can already skip this part and dive right into….. Got you ! :)) No, you’re not getting off that easily. We’re following the whole process through. The purpose of this article is to be instructional for everyone. Beginners or advanced.

• We decide on font family, size, weight and color. Don’t forget the alignment.
• We add the padding where required. Remember that Sketch does not allow for actual padding, so solving this requires some “creativity” on your behalf.

Restraining the text box, solves that problem nicely.

• We name and organize things. This helps us keep track of changes and makes it easier to add the right stuff later on.
• We pin and prepare our font for resizing. Decide on placement, where your font style is going to go,etc.
• We set up the “template” by naming the font layer properly, so that it shows up neatly in the override panel.

It’s nice to have your text layer renamed properly. Adds the right touch.

• We add some sample text. Don’t leave it empty. It’s just not useful. Plus it sucks from a visibility standpoint.

• We plant our symbol into whatever place we need it to.

Yay. Our first Font Symbol !

• We profit.

SOOOO MAAAANYYYY CHOICEEEEESSS !!!

Feels so good to change stuff on the fly. Mh mh mh !!

In this step, we’re laying the groundwork for our future style variations. Better do it once for once for only one set, than have to do everything for each set of fonts/weights/whatever we’re going to be using later on.

What now ?

Well, you can now start to generate new styles based on the ones you already have, create new symbols. Idk. The world is your oyster ! Enjoy it, but don’t forget the spicy jalapeno sauce ! :)

As usual, enjoy, and give it a Clap, if you learned something new. :)