Measure, leading, contrast, rhythm. A short note on treating long-form text as a first-class interface, not a content slot.
Most apps treat text as something that gets poured into a container. But for a huge class of products — docs, journals, publishing, anything with real prose — the reading experience is the product, and it deserves the same care as any other interface.
01 — The fundamentalsMeasure, leading, contrast
- Measure. 60–75 characters per line. Wider tires the eye; narrower fractures it.
- Leading. Generous line-height — 1.6 or more for body — gives prose room to breathe.
- Contrast. Near-black on warm white. Pure black on pure white vibrates.
If the reading is good, people stay. Everything else is decoration.
None of this is novel — it's typography that predates the web by centuries. The novelty is choosing to apply it inside software, where almost nobody bothers.