typography-audit · diff

git:20260901.a877ac0 to git:20260901.b5743a2

1 added, 1 removed. Audit A to A.

---

name: typography-audit

description: >-

Audits web typography against 78 rules in 10 categories: font selection and

@font-face setup, sizing and measure, punctuation, spacing and rhythm,

hierarchy, alignment and layout, OpenType features, brand identity, typeface

pairing, and display type. Reports file:line findings with concrete CSS/HTML

fixes ordered by impact. Use when writing or reviewing CSS/HTML for text,

selecting or pairing typefaces, configuring font-feature-settings or

@font-face, building a type scale, or asking "audit my typography", "fix the

fonts", "review my type system", "why does this text look off". Triggers on

font-family, font-size, line-height, letter-spacing, smart quotes, em dashes,

faux bold or italic, variable fonts, widows and orphans. For whole-UI audits

beyond type (accessibility, forms, navigation), use ui-design Audit mode; for

choosing a visual direction or designing a new type system, use ui-design

Direction mode.

---

# Typography Audit

78 rules in 10 categories for web typography. Every finding names file, rule, and fix.

- **IS:** typography only: font loading, sizing, punctuation, spacing, hierarchy, text layout, OpenType features, typeface pairing, brand type, display type.

- **IS NOT:** broad UI review (accessibility, forms, navigation: use `ui-design` Audit mode), or a redesign (new typefaces, scales: use `ui-design` Direction mode).

## Audit Workflow

Track this checklist:

```text

Audit progress:

- [ ] Step 1: Scope. List changed files (or full sweep), map signals to categories

- [ ] Step 2: Run CRITICAL rules in scope (font-, size-, punct-)

- [ ] Step 3: Run HIGH rules in scope (spacing-)

- [ ] Step 4: Run remaining in-scope categories by descending priority

- [ ] Step 5: Report per the contract; every finding has file:line, rule ID, fix

```

1. Scope to changed files unless a full sweep is requested. For a PR: `git diff --name-only` filtered to `.css`, `.scss`, `.html`, `.tsx`/`.jsx`, and template files.

2. Map code to categories via the signal table; skip categories with no signal.

3. Load rule files by prefix (`rules/font-*.md`, etc.), only for the categories the signals selected.

4. Run categories in priority order so CRITICAL findings surface even if the audit is cut short.

5. After fixes, re-run only the rules that produced findings, then finalize the report.

## Scoping Signals → Categories

| Signal in code | Categories to load |

|--------------------|--------------------|

| `@font-face`, `font-family`, font files, variable fonts, `font-stretch`, `transform: scaleX` on text | `font-` |

| `font-size`, `clamp()`, media-query type changes, `max-width` on text, `<em>`/`<strong>`, `text-decoration` | `size-` |

| Copy in HTML/JSX (headings, paragraphs, labels) | `punct-` |

| `line-height`, `letter-spacing`, `word-spacing`, `margin` on text, `text-transform: uppercase` | `spacing-` |

| Heading elements, type scale tokens, `--text-*` properties | `hierarchy-` |

| `text-align`, lists, blockquotes, multi-column text | `layout-` |

| `font-feature-settings`, `font-variant-*`, figures/fractions in copy | `opentype-` |

| Logo/wordmark styles, brand tokens, text color tokens, license comments | `brand-` |

| Two or more distinct `font-family` values | `pairing-` |

| Hero/display sizes, drop caps, `initial-letter` | `display-` |

## Rule Categories by Priority

|----------|----------|--------|--------|-------|

Category map and impact rationale: `rules/_sections.md`. Each rule file gives why it matters plus an incorrect and a correct example. Category impact reflects the category's worst-case rules; report findings with the rule's own frontmatter `impact`, which frequently differs (e.g. `brand-color` is HIGH inside the MEDIUM `brand-` category because it holds the WCAG contrast floor).

## Review Output Contract

Report findings as:

```markdown

## Typography Audit Findings

### path/to/file.css

- [CRITICAL] `punct-smart-quotes` (file.css:42): Straight quotes in heading copy.

- Fix: Replace `"` with `“`/`”` (or UTF-8 curly quotes).

- [CRITICAL] `size-line-height` (file.css:18): `line-height: 20px`, a fixed value the 48px `h1` inherits, so its lines overlap.

- Fix: Use unitless `line-height: 1.5`.

### path/to/clean-file.css

- ✓ pass

```

- Group by file; order by impact within file.

- Every finding: impact tag, rule ID, `file:line`, one-line issue, fix.

- Include clean files as `✓ pass` so coverage is visible.

- End with a summary: counts per impact level.

## Gotchas

- - Don't preload all 78 rule files. Load only the prefixes the signal table selects.

+ - Don't preload every rule file. Load only the prefixes the signal table selects; a full load spends the budget on categories with no signal in scope.

- Report the rule's frontmatter `impact`, never the category's. Two rules get misreported most: `brand-color` is HIGH (an accessibility floor, not a brand nicety) and `punct-daggers` is LOW-MEDIUM (decoration, despite sitting in a CRITICAL category).

- Punctuation rules apply to rendered copy only. Flagging straight quotes or `--` inside `<code>`, `<pre>`, or JS/TS string literals is a false positive; "fixing" them breaks the code.

- Don't flag missing OpenType features without confirming the loaded font ships them. Browsers silently ignore unsupported `font-feature-settings` tags, so the fix does nothing.

- Every finding needs `file:line` and a concrete fix; an unactionable finding forces a redo.

- An audit is not a redesign. Proposing new pairings or scales turns a 10-minute review into a design project; flag the issue and route redesign asks to `ui-design`.

- Don't equalize priorities. A LOW-MEDIUM `display-` nit above a CRITICAL faux-bold finding buries what actually looks broken.

## Related Skills

- `ui-design` Audit mode: broad frontend quality (accessibility, forms, navigation, motion); its typography coverage is shallower.

- `ui-design` Direction mode: choosing typefaces, scales, and visual direction from scratch; run when a finding becomes a redesign request.

- `copywriting`: heading and label wording. This skill governs only the casing of that copy (`punct-case-rules`).