Typesettings
Set your type in Ems with modular scale, vertical rhythm, and responsive ratio based headlines using Sass. Why create another type toolkit in Sass? I wanted to and I couldn't find exactly what I was looking for. Typesettings uses techniques from many different amazing tools while trying to keep it simple.
- Its only dependency is Sass
- It uses Ems not REMs or pixels
- Handles all the math for Ems including the compounding
- It maintains vertical rhythm with pixel based borders using padding set in Ems
- It comes with a default 6px baseline to maintain rhythm on all block elements
- It relies more on using Sass functions combined with vanilla CSS rules rather than mixins to style
- It uses modular scale values to set font-size
- It provides settings for adjusting headlines based on screen width
How to setup
To setup Typesettings download and @import the _typesettings.scss partial into your Sass project after your CSS reset.
@import "path/your-reset";
// Your settings for Typesettings :)
$font-sans: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;
$font-serif: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;
$font-mono: 'Lucida Console', Monaco, monospace;
$text-color: #000;
$base-vertical-unit: 6px;
$base-line-multi: 4;
$base-font-size: 16px;
$ms-ratio: 1.414;
$paragraph-indent: true;
@import "path/typesettings"; // Here is the _typesettings.scss partial
@import "path/your-styles";How to use
After Typesettings is setup in your project the default type styles should be looking good. However I bet you want to use modular scale and vertical rhythm in the rest of your project. Here is an example of how to do that:
The Scss:
// This example is using Typesettings' default settings
// [1] 3 times the baseline grid value for margin-bottom.
// The second argument is the context font-size. In this case it is 1 step down in
// the modular scale.
//
// [2] Using an optional mixin, a 2px border bottom is set with padding bottom
// set to 3 times the baseline grid with 2px subtracted. By subtracting the 2px from
// the padding bottom, vertical rhythm is maintained.
//
// [3] Using an optional mixin, the line-height is set to 3 * baseline grid. Then
// the font-size is passed using our modular scale value.
.your-module {
margin-bottom: emRhythm(3, $ms-down1); // [1]
border-color: #000;
border-style: solid;
@include rhythmBorderBottom(2px, 3, $ms-down1); // [2]
@include setType(3, $ms-down1); // [3]
}The outputted CSS:
.your-module {
margin-bottom: 1.59075em; /* 18px */
border-color: #000;
border-style: solid;
border-bottom-width: 2px;
padding-bottom: 1.414em; /* 16px */
font-size: 0.70721em;
line-height: 1.59075; /* 18px (Okay, not pixel perfect, 17.9999999999px) */
}Requirements
Sass, that's it.
Precision
Typesettings uses relative units and many of the values outputted are a result of dividing and multiplying. So a computed pixel value like 17.999999px will sometimes happen.
