A paragraph is a system, not a shape. Before anyone picks a typeface we decide six things: measure, leading, size, colour, spacing between blocks, and what happens to all five on a phone. Get those right and almost any competent typeface will read beautifully.

Measure Before Typeface

Line length does more for readability than family choice ever will. We hold body copy between 60 and 75 characters. Wider and the eye loses its place on the return sweep; narrower and the rhythm breaks every few words. On a 1200px layout that usually means the text column stops well short of the container — which designers resist and readers thank you for.

Leading Is Not A Percentage You Guess

Body text sits at 1.6 to 1.7. Headlines tighten as they grow: a 70px display line wants about 1.1, sometimes less. The mistake is applying one line-height token across every size and calling it a system.

What We Ship

Every project leaves with a type scale of no more than six sizes, two weights, and a documented paragraph spacing value. Fewer decisions later, and the site still looks composed after a year of other people editing it.