https://github.com/pglevy/unsuck-your-typography

10 tips anyone can use to create a better reading experience
https://github.com/pglevy/unsuck-your-typography

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10 tips anyone can use to create a better reading experience

• Host: GitHub
• URL: https://github.com/pglevy/unsuck-your-typography
• Owner: pglevy
• License: mit
• Created: 2024-03-04T02:15:53.000Z (over 2 years ago)
• Default Branch: main
• Last Pushed: 2024-03-08T13:19:46.000Z (over 2 years ago)
• Last Synced: 2025-07-07T15:54:26.070Z (11 months ago)
• Language: HTML
• Homepage: https://pglevy.github.io/unsuck-your-typography/
• Size: 599 KB
• Stars: 0
• Watchers: 1
• Forks: 0
• Open Issues: 0
• Metadata Files:
  • Readme: README.md
  • License: LICENSE

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README

          
# Unsuck your typography: 10 tips anyone can use to create a better reading experience

We come across lots of bad typography in our everyday lives, usually created by everyday people who aren’t trained designers. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

## About this project

With the launch of the Macintosh computer, Steve Jobs started a typography revolution. In a commencement speech at Stanford in 2005, he [explained](https://www.typeroom.eu/steve-jobs-calligraphy-apple-typography-legacy) the impact a calligraphy course he took in college had on him:

> I learned about… what makes great typography great… And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography.

Typography is the “art and technique of arranging type” ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typography)). Before the advent of desktop publishing, this practice was limited to a cloister of designers. Now it’s available to anyone with a computer. But with great power comes the ability to make a great mess. Not everyone approved of this newfound power Jobs had granted the masses. Design demigod Massimo Vignelli called desktop publishing “a disaster of mega proportions. A cultural pollution of incomparable dimension.”

Was Massimo right? Things are bad. But they can get better without too much effort. There are numerous “ten commandments of type” articles out there, but most of them are written in the jargon of professional designers. The problem is a lot of what we read nowadays is not created by professional designers. It’s the teacher who sends long emails in an indecipherable script font. Or the community newsletter editor who places text over busy images and low-contrast backgrounds. Or the colleague at work who jams walls of small text onto a presentation slide. This post is for the people. Let’s prove Massimo wrong.

[Read the 10 tips](https://pglevy.github.io/unsuck-your-typography/)

Typically we put words into type so they can be read by others. Don’t make things harder than they need to be. By keeping these ten simple tips in mind for any content you’re creating, you’ll be doing your part to make the world a better place for readers.

To take things to the next level, check out the online book, [Butterick’s Practical Typography](https://practicaltypography.com/). Have questions? Just ask. Designers: if you think it worthy, share with non-designers who need the help.

*Originally posted on the [Designer Sketches Substack](https://designersketches.substack.com/p/unsuck-your-typography-10-tips-anyone)*