typography

Name: typography
Author: rshankras

548stars46forks

How to install typography?

rshankras/claude-code-apple-skills/typography

$npx -y skills add rshankras/claude-code-apple-skills --skill typography

Installs into the current project.

Summary

UI typography on Apple platforms — text styles and Dynamic Type, the San Francisco family (Pro/Rounded/Compact/Mono/New York + width axis), optical sizes, tracking vs kerning, leading adjustments, and custom-font scaling. Use when choosing fonts, building type hierarchy, fixing t

Files · 1

View on GitHub

SKILL.md

1	# Typography
2
3	Type is most of your UI. The system does the hard parts — optical sizes, tracking tables,
4	Dynamic Type — if you use its APIs. This skill covers when to trust the system, how to build
5	hierarchy deliberately, and what custom fonts owe you back.
6
7	## When This Skill Activates
8
9	- Choosing fonts or building a type hierarchy for a screen or app
10	- Text truncating, cramping, or breaking under larger Dynamic Type sizes
11	- Adopting a custom/brand font (and keeping accessibility)
12	- Display typesetting: hero numbers, stats, editorial headlines
13
14	## Rule 1: text styles first
15
16	Predefined styles (Large Title → Caption 2) are weight + size + leading combos with Dynamic
17	Type support built in — and different styles scale differently (body grows more than
18	footnote), which manual font sizes can't replicate.
19
20	- Build hierarchy from 2–3 text styles + emphasized variants (bold trait — the actual weight
21	varies per style: some go medium→semibold, others bold→heavy) before reaching for new fonts.
22	- Semantic colors + text styles together give dark mode, contrast, and Dynamic Type for free.
23	- macOS supports text styles (without Dynamic Type); design Mac type at 100% — no iOS-style
24	scaling assumptions.
25
26	## Rule 2: let optical sizes and tracking work
27
28	- San Francisco blends Text→Display designs continuously between 17 and 28pt (below: sturdier
29	letterforms, looser tracking for legibility; above: tighter, more refined). System font APIs do
30	this automatically — hardcoded single-cut fonts don't.
31	- Tracking, not kerning, for letterspacing — tracking is size-specific and lets the OS
32	disable clashing features (ligatures). Override system tracking only in exceptional cases.
33	- Truncation pressure? Use `allowsTightening` (default-tightening-for-truncation) instead of
34	manually squeezing — and prefer wrapping to truncating (line limit 0 on labels that matter).
35	- Line height moves only via leading traits: tight = −2pt, loose = +2pt (±1pt on watchOS); the
36	system adds leading automatically for tall scripts (Arabic, Devanagari).
37
38	## The Dynamic Type ladder (WWDC24 10074)
39
40	12 sizes: 7 default + 5 accessibility (AX1–AX5). `.body` runs 17pt at default up to 53pt
41	at AX5 — roughly 3× taller, and layouts must expect that. Escalate in order:
42
43	1. Text styles — `.font(.title)` / `preferredFont(forTextStyle:)` +
44	adjusts-for-content-size, line count 0 so text wraps instead of truncating.
45	2. `@ScaledMetric` for the non-text riding alongside (icon frames, spacing); SF
46	Symbols scale via `UIImage.SymbolConfiguration(textStyle:)`. Prioritize scaling
47	essential content over decoration.
48	3. Switch layout axis at accessibility sizes — branch on
49	`dynamicTypeSize.isAccessibilitySize` with `AnyLayout(HStackLayout())` /
50	`AnyLayout(VStackLayout())` (UIKit: flip the stack axis on
51	`preferredContentSizeCategory.isAccessibilityCategory`); give text the full line
52	width and relax `lineLimit`.
53	4. Large Content Viewer — only for bars that legitimately can't grow: a tab bar takes
54	under 10% of screen height, and scaled to accessibility sizes it would eat almost a
55	quarter (WWDC24 10074). Scaling is always preferred; the viewer is the fallback, not
56	the fix.
57
58	Test at all 12 sizes (Xcode Previews → Variants → Dynamic Type Variants), not just the
59	biggest — mid-range accessibility sizes catch different wrap points.
60
61	## The San Francisco family — pick by job
62
63	\| Face \| Job \|
64	\|---\|---\|
65	\| SF Pro \| The default; UI text everywhere \|
66	\| SF Pro Rounded \| Friendlier numerals/labels — widgets, health/fitness data \|
67	\| SF Compact \| watchOS (space-efficient counterpart) \|
68	\| SF Mono \| Code, tabular alignment \|
69	\| New York \| Serif — reading experiences, editorial contrast \|
70	\| SF Arabic / SF Arabic Rounded \| Arabic script with its own optical sizes \|
71
72	The width axis (Condensed / Regular / Compressed / Expanded):
73
74	- Default Regular; every non-Regular choice is a legibility decision — check it.
75	- Condensed: fit more text comfortably (long headlines wrap one line fewer).
76	- Compressed: display-only density, not body text.
77	- Expanded: display typesetting AND small secondary labels (wide + loose tracking).
78	- Width is a fourth hierarchy lever beside weight, size, color; all widths share identical
79	vertical proportions, so mixing them never misaligns baselines. 2–3 styles are enough —
80	pair one width with contrasting weights, one weight with contrasting widths, or oppose both
81	for maximum display contrast.
82
83	## Custom fonts: what you owe back
84
85	System fonts

People who liked this also viewed

6 picks

Type

typography

548stars46forks

View on GitHub

How to install typography?

rshankras/claude-code-apple-skills/typography

$npx -y skills add rshankras/claude-code-apple-skills --skill typography

Installs into the current project.

Summary

Files · 1

View on GitHub

SKILL.md

1	# Typography
2
3	Type is most of your UI. The system does the hard parts — optical sizes, tracking tables,
4	Dynamic Type — if you use its APIs. This skill covers when to trust the system, how to build
5	hierarchy deliberately, and what custom fonts owe you back.
6
7	## When This Skill Activates
8
9	- Choosing fonts or building a type hierarchy for a screen or app
10	- Text truncating, cramping, or breaking under larger Dynamic Type sizes
11	- Adopting a custom/brand font (and keeping accessibility)
12	- Display typesetting: hero numbers, stats, editorial headlines
13
14	## Rule 1: text styles first
15
16	Predefined styles (Large Title → Caption 2) are weight + size + leading combos with Dynamic
17	Type support built in — and different styles scale differently (body grows more than
18	footnote), which manual font sizes can't replicate.
19
20	- Build hierarchy from 2–3 text styles + emphasized variants (bold trait — the actual weight
21	varies per style: some go medium→semibold, others bold→heavy) before reaching for new fonts.
22	- Semantic colors + text styles together give dark mode, contrast, and Dynamic Type for free.
23	- macOS supports text styles (without Dynamic Type); design Mac type at 100% — no iOS-style
24	scaling assumptions.
25
26	## Rule 2: let optical sizes and tracking work
27
28	- San Francisco blends Text→Display designs continuously between 17 and 28pt (below: sturdier
29	letterforms, looser tracking for legibility; above: tighter, more refined). System font APIs do
30	this automatically — hardcoded single-cut fonts don't.
31	- Tracking, not kerning, for letterspacing — tracking is size-specific and lets the OS
32	disable clashing features (ligatures). Override system tracking only in exceptional cases.
33	- Truncation pressure? Use `allowsTightening` (default-tightening-for-truncation) instead of
34	manually squeezing — and prefer wrapping to truncating (line limit 0 on labels that matter).
35	- Line height moves only via leading traits: tight = −2pt, loose = +2pt (±1pt on watchOS); the
36	system adds leading automatically for tall scripts (Arabic, Devanagari).
37
38	## The Dynamic Type ladder (WWDC24 10074)
39
40	12 sizes: 7 default + 5 accessibility (AX1–AX5). `.body` runs 17pt at default up to 53pt
41	at AX5 — roughly 3× taller, and layouts must expect that. Escalate in order:
42
43	1. Text styles — `.font(.title)` / `preferredFont(forTextStyle:)` +
44	adjusts-for-content-size, line count 0 so text wraps instead of truncating.
45	2. `@ScaledMetric` for the non-text riding alongside (icon frames, spacing); SF
46	Symbols scale via `UIImage.SymbolConfiguration(textStyle:)`. Prioritize scaling
47	essential content over decoration.
48	3. Switch layout axis at accessibility sizes — branch on
49	`dynamicTypeSize.isAccessibilitySize` with `AnyLayout(HStackLayout())` /
50	`AnyLayout(VStackLayout())` (UIKit: flip the stack axis on
51	`preferredContentSizeCategory.isAccessibilityCategory`); give text the full line
52	width and relax `lineLimit`.
53	4. Large Content Viewer — only for bars that legitimately can't grow: a tab bar takes
54	under 10% of screen height, and scaled to accessibility sizes it would eat almost a
55	quarter (WWDC24 10074). Scaling is always preferred; the viewer is the fallback, not
56	the fix.
57
58	Test at all 12 sizes (Xcode Previews → Variants → Dynamic Type Variants), not just the
59	biggest — mid-range accessibility sizes catch different wrap points.
60
61	## The San Francisco family — pick by job
62
63	\| Face \| Job \|
64	\|---\|---\|
65	\| SF Pro \| The default; UI text everywhere \|
66	\| SF Pro Rounded \| Friendlier numerals/labels — widgets, health/fitness data \|
67	\| SF Compact \| watchOS (space-efficient counterpart) \|
68	\| SF Mono \| Code, tabular alignment \|
69	\| New York \| Serif — reading experiences, editorial contrast \|
70	\| SF Arabic / SF Arabic Rounded \| Arabic script with its own optical sizes \|
71
72	The width axis (Condensed / Regular / Compressed / Expanded):
73
74	- Default Regular; every non-Regular choice is a legibility decision — check it.
75	- Condensed: fit more text comfortably (long headlines wrap one line fewer).
76	- Compressed: display-only density, not body text.
77	- Expanded: display typesetting AND small secondary labels (wide + loose tracking).
78	- Width is a fourth hierarchy lever beside weight, size, color; all widths share identical
79	vertical proportions, so mixing them never misaligns baselines. 2–3 styles are enough —
80	pair one width with contrasting weights, one weight with contrasting widths, or oppose both
81	for maximum display contrast.
82
83	## Custom fonts: what you owe back
84
85	System fonts

People who liked this also viewed

6 picks

Type