Projects/Usability/HIG/Style/Typography

Purpose

The guideline helps ensure that typography is used in such a way it is always in harmony with the overall visual design.

Guidelines

• While KDE Workspace users can alter the fonts used throughout the workspace and in applications, the visual design uses Oxygen as the reference typeface.
• Typography is treated like any other graphic element when considering spacing and alignment.
• The number of typeface variations (bold, italic, size, caps, color) are kept to about three in any single design.
• Multi-line blocks of text are either left or right aligned; center alignment for multi-line blocks of text is avoided.
• Short phrases and simple words are favored instead verbose, technical jargon:
  • Put the most important thing first.
  • Short words, active verbs and common nouns.
  • Reduce redundancy. e.g. Don’t repeat the dialog title in the dialog text.