EXPERIMENT · 2025
Typeset.
An interactive typography playground
Context
Typography decisions are usually made in static mockups, sampled at one size and one weight. The relationships that actually matter — how a fluid scale behaves at real widths, how two typefaces pair at paragraph sizes — are invisible until implementation, when changing them is most expensive.
The problem
Rendering dozens of live type samples in the DOM at interactive framerates is a performance problem; sharing a finding without accounts or storage is a product problem.
My role
Concept, design and development.
What made it technically interesting
Many live text samples updating per frame thrash layout in the DOM — the previews had to stay at 60fps while still using real font files.
A fluid scale is a function of viewport width; showing it as one number hides the curve that actually decides whether it works.
The tool needed to be shareable with zero backend, zero accounts and zero storage.
Decisions
- Canvas over DOM for the previews
- Dozens of live samples updating per frame thrash layout in the DOM. Canvas rendering keeps interaction at 60fps while the text still comes from real font files.
- The URL is the save button
- The entire state serializes into the query string — sharing a finding costs nothing and the tool needs no accounts or backend.
Result
- A tool I use on every project where type is part of the interface.
- A public demonstration that interaction design and typography are engineering disciplines, not decoration.
What I learned
Build the tool your judgment needs. Nothing teaches a craft faster than making it measurable.
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