Typography guidelines are the written rules for how a brand sets type: which typefaces, at which sizes and weights, with what spacing, and for what purpose. Most teams have a font name on a slide somewhere and little else: no stated scale, no line-height rule, no cap on how many weights one flyer can carry. That gap shows up fast, in a sales deck set in four fonts or a one-pager where the subhead is smaller than the body text under it. This post lays out what a complete set of typography guidelines covers, from the type scale to where the rules live once someone writes them down.
Key Takeaways
- A type scale fixes the size relationship between headline, subhead, body and caption, so nobody picks a size by eye.
- Guidelines name the exact weights allowed, for example Regular, Medium and Bold, and rule out the rest.
- Line height, letter spacing and line length each need their own rule. The right typeface set wrong still reads off-brand.
- WCAG's minimum contrast ratios, 4.5 to 1 for body text and 3 to 1 for large text, belong in the guidelines, not left to each designer's judgment.
- A design brief that stays current does more for typography than a PDF that was accurate the day it shipped.
What typography guidelines cover
A complete set of typography guidelines usually has five parts: a type scale, the typeface and weight list, spacing and measure rules, usage rules tied to each style, and accessibility minimums. Most brand books stop at the first two and skip the rest, which is why a logo looks the same across a company's decks while the type underneath it does not.
In TrueKeep, these rules live in the guide, one of the four parts of the portal alongside strategy, assets and components. A brand manager checks a heading size the same way they check a hex value: by looking, not by asking.
Set a type scale, not just a font size
A type scale is a short list of sizes, each tied to a role (headline, subhead, body, caption) instead of a pixel number a designer has to remember. Google's Material Design type scale names roles instead of raw sizes, so a team can change the actual pixel values later without renaming anything that uses them.
Without a scale, every document ends up with sizes nobody chose on purpose: a 15px body here, a 17px pull quote there, close enough to pass a glance and different enough to look careless side by side. A scale with four to six steps, each used for exactly one role, closes that gap.
Choose typefaces and the weights you'll actually use
Guidelines should name the exact typeface, not "a clean sans serif," and list which weights are allowed: say Regular, Medium and Bold, and stop there. Google Fonts' own guidance on choosing type makes the case for restraint: one or two typefaces, used the same way every time, hold up better than three typefaces used however a given document calls for them.
The same restraint applies to weights. A brand with six weights available in its typeface still needs to say which three show up in real work. The rest exist in the font file and nowhere else.
Define line height, letter spacing and line length
Line height is the vertical space between lines of text, usually written as a multiple of the type size (1.5 times a 16px body, for example). Letter spacing is the horizontal space added between characters, most useful in small caps or all-caps headings where letters start to crowd. Line length, sometimes called measure, is how many characters sit on one line before it wraps.
Practical Typography's rule of thumb on line length holds up: a line that runs much past 90 characters gets harder to track back to its start, and one under 45 characters breaks a sentence's rhythm. Guidelines that only name a typeface and size, with no measure rule, still let a one-pager run edge to edge with 120-character lines.
Write usage rules for each style
A type scale and a typeface list tell a designer what is available. Usage rules tell them what to do with it. A short, specific rule reads better than a paragraph about hierarchy:
Headline: Display, 36-48px, Medium weight only. Never center a headline
longer than one line.
Body: Text, 16-18px, Regular weight. Line height 1.5x the type size.
Caption: Text, 13px, Regular weight, +0.2px letter spacing. Two lines max.
TrueKeep's design brief example shows what a filled-in version of this looks like for a real brand, next to the strategy and voice decisions it sits alongside.
Build in accessibility minimums
Typography guidelines that skip accessibility are not complete. The W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines set a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5 to 1 for body text against its background, and 3 to 1 for large text (18pt bold or 24pt and up). Both numbers belong in the guidelines next to the color rules, not left for someone to check later.
Size matters too. A caption that reads fine on a designer's monitor can be unreadable printed on a trade show banner or shrunk into a social post. Guidelines should set a minimum size for each role, not just a default.
Keep typography guidelines current
A typeface list only helps if someone updates it when the brand changes. In TrueKeep, edit mode lets a curator change a size, a weight or a spacing rule in the portal itself, so the guide reflects the decision the day it's made instead of the next time someone remembers to update a PDF.
The same rules reach further than the portal. Through the MCP connection, a connected AI tool reads the design brief, including the heading hierarchy and usage rules, before it drafts a one-pager or deck outline. The structure it proposes, what counts as a headline and what counts as a caption, already matches the type system, because the guidelines came to the work instead of waiting to be found.
FAQ
What should typography guidelines include? A complete set covers five things: a type scale, the typefaces and weights allowed, spacing and measure rules (line height, letter spacing, line length), usage rules for each style, and accessibility minimums for contrast and size.
How many typefaces should a brand use? Most guidance, including Google Fonts' own writing on choosing type, favors one or two typefaces used consistently over three used occasionally. More typefaces means more combinations to police later.
What is a type scale? A type scale is a fixed list of type sizes, each tied to a role like headline, subhead, body or caption, so a designer picks a role instead of guessing a pixel value.
Do typography guidelines need to cover accessibility? Yes. WCAG sets a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5 to 1 for body text and 3 to 1 for large text, and those numbers should sit next to the rest of the type rules, not in a separate document.
Where should typography guidelines live? Somewhere a designer checks before starting work, not a slide in an old deck. A guide that is part of a living portal, updated in place, stays accurate longer than a PDF.
Write the rules down once, in one place
Typography guidelines are more than a font name. A complete set defines a type scale, the typefaces and weights allowed, line height and letter spacing, line length, and accessibility minimums for contrast and size. Skip any of those and the gap shows up in the next deck or one-pager someone builds without asking first.
The rules only hold up if they live somewhere current, somewhere the next person actually checks before they start. Get started and put your type rules where the next person building a deck will find them before they guess.