Book · Free online book, start with the 10-minute summary

Butterick's Practical Typography

Matthew Butterick · practicaltypography.com Free Beginner

Typography is where most non-designer products quietly fall apart, and this free online book fixes that with plain rules. Start with the ten-minute summary: sensible line length, generous line spacing, one good font, and restrained sizes. Getting just the text right lifts a whole product more than any decoration.

  • Keep line length to roughly 45 to 90 characters for readability
  • One well-chosen font beats mixing several average ones
  • Body text spacing and size matter more than any flourish
Open on practicaltypography.com ↗

The question it answers

  1. I'm not a designer, how do I make my product not look terrible?

Read with it

  1. Design tactics written specifically for developers and non-designers who need to ship good-looking UI without a design... refactoringui.com Book · ~250 pages Refactoring UI Adam Wathan & Steve Schoger
  2. Typography is the fastest way to stop looking like a template, because every no-code builder ships one default font that... fontpair.co Tool Fontpair fontpair.co
  3. A free, fast preview of the Refactoring UI mindset that you can apply this afternoon. It gives you seven fixes (use more white... Refactoring UI (Medium) Article · 10 min read 7 Practical Tips for Cheating at Design Adam Wathan and Steve Schoger
  4. Erik Kennedy writes for engineers and founders who were never taught design, and his rules are unusually memorable (light comes... Learn UI Design (Erik Kennedy) Essay · 25 min read 7 Rules for Creating Gorgeous UI Erik D. Kennedy
  5. An interactive page that improves an ugly wall of text step by step in front of you, so you feel exactly which changes matter... jgthms.com Tool · 4 min interactive Web Design in 4 Minutes Jeremy Thomas
  6. The classic that gives non, designers four principles they will use forever: contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity.... Robin Williams (Peachpit) Book · 240 pages The Non-Designer's Design Book Robin Williams
eChai Partner Brands The partnership →