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Forma 36

Typography

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Typography is a foundational element in UI design. Good typography establishes a strong, cohesive visual hierarchy which functions to present content clearly and efficiently to users.


Typeface

Forma 36 enables users to create clean, efficient user interfaces that utilize system UI fonts.

System UI font family:

Typefaces demonstration, San Francisco, Lucida Grande, Neue Helvetica, Arial, and Segoe UI

Forma 36 uses system UI fonts. System UI fonts refer to the fonts used to render text in the UI of an operating system. When used on the web they offer familiarity, load with zero-latency, and support a wide number of character sets.

San Francisco appears on Safari (Mac OS X and iOS); Neue Helvetica and Lucida Grande appears on older versions of Mac OS X; Segoe UI targets Windows and Windows phone; Arial is available on almost all operating systems.

Tokens

TokenExampleCSS VariableValue
font-stack-primary
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--font-stack-primary
-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Segoe UI, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, Apple Color Emoji, Segoe UI Emoji, Segoe UI Symbol
font-stack-monospace
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--font-stack-monospace
SFMono-Regular, Consolas, Liberation Mono, Menlo,monospace

Font sizes

We use rem units to define our font sizes because they are direct and simple to maintain.

What are rem?

rem (root em) are simply a ratio of the root element font size. The root element is the browser default font size 16px. EX: (1rem = 16px) and (2rem = 32px).

Using rem units enables our system to scale up and down based on user preference.


Available Sizes


Section Heading

Section Heading is intended to be used as a title for a widget, and is most commonly used in the sidebar.

Font size: 12px = 0.75rem - Line Height: 18px = 1.125rem - Weight: 600


Body

Body is the base font size for content. It is intended to be used as paragraph copy.

Font size: 14px=0.875rem - Line Height: 21px=1.313rem - Weight: 500


Subheading

Subheadings are intended to be used as headings for copy nested within a section. EX: a subheading under Contact may be Address or Phone number.

Font size: 16px = 1rem - Line Height: 24px = 1.5rem - Weight: 700


Heading

Heading is intended to be used to define a section. Headings are very important for accessibility, as it helps to make copy more easily scannable and guides a user through your content.

Another accessibility consideration screen readers. Visually impaired people often use screen readers, which find sections in your copy based on your heading hierarchy.

Font size: 21px = 1.313rem - Line Height: 31px = 1.938rem - Weight: 700


Display

Display is intended to be used in the same cases as Display Text Large.

Font size: 28px = 1.75rem - Line Height: 35px = 2.188rem - Weight: 700


Display Large

Display Large is intended to be used to display text in featured content, such as empty states, promotions, and more.

Avoid using Display Large as a replacement for headings. In these cases, use the Heading style.

Font size: 35px = 2.188rem - Line Height: 44px = 2.75rem - Weight: 700


Tokens

Font base

TokenCSS VariableValue
font-base-default
--font-base-default
16

Font sizes

TokenCSS VariableValue (rem)Value (px)
font-size-4xl
--font-size-4xl
3rem
48px
font-size-3xl
--font-size-3xl
2.25rem
36px
font-size-2xl
--font-size-2xl
1.75rem
28px
font-size-xl
--font-size-xl
1.25rem
20px
font-size-l
--font-size-l
1rem
16px
font-size-m
--font-size-m
0.875rem
14px
font-size-s
--font-size-s
0.75rem
12px

Line height

Line height can be described as a vertical padding around letters on each line.

The Forma 36 line height is defined by rem, which forces the line height to correspond to the root font size.

Tokens

TokenExampleCSS VariableValue
line-height-default
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--line-height-default
1.5
line-height-condensed
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--line-height-condensed
1.25
line-height-4xl
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--line-height-4xl
3.5rem
line-height-3xl
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--line-height-3xl
3rem
line-height-2xl
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--line-height-2xl
2.25rem
line-height-xl
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--line-height-xl
2rem
line-height-l
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--line-height-l
1.5rem
line-height-m
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--line-height-m
1.25rem
line-height-s
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--line-height-s
1rem

Consistency

Line-height demonstration against 4px grid

To ensure each typeface is represented properly and the customer experience stays the same across different devices.

The base line grid assures that the Forma 36 typography system adapts flawlessly when typefaces, sizes, and weights are stacked together.


Font weights

TokenCSS VariableValue
font-weight-normal
--font-weight-normal
400
font-weight-medium
--font-weight-medium
500
font-weight-demi-bold
--font-weight-demi-bold
600

Letter-spacing

TokenExampleCSS VariableValue
letter-spacing-wide
Contentful
--letter-spacing-wide
0.1rem

Guidelines

Use Forma 36 Sizes

To ensure consistency across user interfaces utilizing the Forma 36 design system, use available text styles from the Figma UI kit.

Color Contrast

WCAG 2.1 Contrast Guideline recommends to have at least 4.5:1 contrast between your text color, and the background. Low color contrast may result indistinguishable elements on your screen, especially for people with color blindness.