LetterForge
The Journal
How to Pair Fonts Like a Professional
A practical method for pairing typefaces by classification and contrast, with real, freely available examples for headings and body text.
Understanding X-Height and Vertical Rhythm
Why the same font size can look completely different across typefaces, and how x-height shapes legibility, leading, and the vertical rhythm of a page.
Tracking vs. Kerning: What's the Difference?
Tracking and kerning both adjust the space between letters, but they solve different problems. Here's how to tell them apart and when to use each.
Building a Modular Type Scale for Posters
How to derive every font size in a poster or layout from a single base size and ratio, instead of guessing at each level of the hierarchy separately.
Choosing a Pen Angle for Broad-Edge Calligraphy
The single adjustment that defines a calligraphic hand's character: how the angle you hold a broad-edge nib at determines where thick and thin strokes fall.
What Is a Baseline Grid, and Why Do Designers Use One?
A baseline grid keeps every text element on a page in vertical rhythm. Here's what it is, why it matters for multi-column layouts, and how to set one up.
Anatomy of a Letterform: Serifs, Terminals, and Counters
A guided tour of the parts that make up a single letter, and why knowing their names sharpens how you look at type and lettering.
How Pen Angle Creates Thick and Thin Strokes
Stroke contrast isn't a side effect of broad-edge calligraphy — it's a designed, quantifiable result of pen angle and nib width. Worked out in real millimetres using the nib-angle guide's own formula.
X-Height and Choosing Line Spacing That Actually Reads
Line spacing chosen by feel tends to land too tight or needlessly loose. The x-height & line-spacing calculator ties it to something measurable — line length — and the actual numbers are worth seeing worked out.
Why Tracking Changes Between Display and Text Sizes
Zero tracking that reads fine at 18pt looks loose blown up to 72pt and cramped shrunk down to 9pt. The letter-spacing guide's own size-dependent formula, worked out in real numbers.
How to Build a Baseline Grid and Keep Type On It
Setting up a baseline grid is the easy part. Keeping every new heading, caption, and image block landed on it as a layout grows is the ongoing discipline — worked through with a real multi-level example.
Choosing a Ratio for Your Type Scale
Eight named ratios, what each one actually produces from the same base size, and how base size and ratio interact — worked out with the type-scale generator rather than eyeballed.