The Reading Layer, Refined
V3.5 tunes how a card reads: strict grayscale, SF Pro Rounded, no color.
Fewer sizes, darker ink, calmer tracking. V3.5 tunes how a card reads, never what it says.
The words stay the same. The page just reads easier.
Body tracking flips negative.
R-9 spaced body text out with positive tracking. That broke the word shapes fast readers rely on. V3.5 retunes body letter-spacing to:
with word spacing back to normal. The UPPERCASE eyebrow stays the only positively-tracked role.
Three steps, all readable.
| Layer | Ink | Contrast | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary | #1A1A1A | 17.4:1 | Headers, focal stats |
| Secondary | #595959 | 7.0:1 | Body prose |
| Tertiary | #767676 | 4.54:1 | Captions, labels |
| Takeaway | #888 and below | drop to non-text | hairlines, gridlines |
Every text step clears the WCAG 4.5:1 floor. De-emphasis is a tonal step down, never a step below readable.
Three sizes carry the whole card. Header, subhead, and body do the work. Weight, ink, and space set the rest, not a fourth size.
Beats sit further apart now. The default gap grows from 48 to 64 points. More space between ideas reads as more separate ideas.
Old cards never change. Every card built before this keeps its first look. The new rules touch only the newest cards.
Hierarchy from weight, ink, and space, not from more sizes.
Read it once, and the system fits in your head.
- Apple: SF Pro tracking table and HIG Writing guidelines
- WCAG 2.2: SC 1.4.3 (contrast) and SC 1.4.12 (text spacing)
- Vignelli, "A Few Basic Typefaces"; Müller-Brockmann, grid systems
- Butterick, "Practical Typography"; Bringhurst, "The Elements of Typographic Style"
- Nielsen Norman Group: first-pass scanning and word-shape recognition