Typography refers to the style and appearance of text, encompassing fonts, bolding, text size, and other elements. For writers, in particular, practicing the use of it can lead to major growth. Knowing what to bold, when to use different fonts, and how to portray importance with text size—that’s more than knowledge, that’s a skill. It adds flavor, yes, but that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Typography is a transformative writing concept, and intentionally employing it bolsters the scannability of any piece while making its tone that much more apparent.
Increasing Scannability in Text With Typography
Did that header grab your attention? Or was it the bolded question that you noticed first? Either way, these are both examples of how typography makes compositions more scannable. By establishing a textual norm and then deviating from it, you create a pattern break, and pattern breaks attract the eyes. Whether it’s through using Roboto font instead of DM Sans, bolding a sentence, or switching the text color of a heading, shattering the status quo of your piece establishes a new normal, telling readers what to look at with text alone. This unconsciously guides them through an article before they ever properly read a sentence.
I was taught a 10-month lesson about typography’s impact on scannability during my time interning with Four28 Marketing. This incredible SEO-focused company thrived off its ability to make articles that were not only capable of ranking in Google but also easy to skim through. The founder himself, Daniel Segalo, said in one of their training videos that “people are busy,” so scannability was a must. This manifested in their articles using bolding liberally, blackening entire sentences when they were deemed of vital importance. After several edits from my supervisor showed this was a priority, I employed it into my writing style, bolding sentences and at times paragraphs I thought were key to a piece’s message. This simple use of typography made my work much easier to read for busy bodies; this allows what I write to be read and understood in almost any setting.
Adding Tone to Sentences With Typography
Every written work, fictional or otherwise, has a tone to it, whether that be professional, casual, comical, or something else entirely. This tone, once established, engages the reader. They immerse themselves in the composition’s unique language, allowing them not just to acquire information, but to feel how the author wants them to. For professional writers of any form, this creates the opportunity to use pathos and humor—both tactics touch the heart and heighten the emotional potency of a work.
Did you notice the italicized word “tone” in this paragraph’s title? Or perhaps the italicized word “feel” caught your eye instead? There’s no right or wrong answer, but instead a statement in that simple act of detecting—italics, much like text color or font choice, cause pattern breaks. They draw the eye by straying from the norm, but since slanted words aren’t as loud as something like bolding, they don’t immediately portray importance, but instead convey pointedness. The words surrounding them build to this treasured piece of text, and by following the whole sentence or paragraph, you can discover what’s so valuable that its typography needed to stand out. This establishes a sharp, direct tone for the paragraph. If I opted for a change in font color instead, that would shift to being creative or even whimsical, as a wide array of colors is largely associated with artistry. The point here is that intentional usage of typography can establish and maintain a tone for a paragraph, and, on a larger scale, even for a full composition. This truth is one I’ve learned through my years developing the website Entertainment Analytical. Analyzing forms of media that used typography to this end taught me that the line between creative writing and professional writing is more blurry than most would think.
Scannability and tone—these things may seem small, almost insignificant, but a writer who can master both of them can create pieces that are extremely convenient and engaging to read. It’s in these minute details where good writing turns into great writing capable of ranking or informing while being a worthwhile read. Typography is the key—using your text as a weapon ensures that every facet of your work has a function, allowing readers to enjoy consuming your piece, encouraging them to engage with it, and giving them the freedom to read it whenever and wherever they want.
Luke Princeton Nazaire 