Practical Typography
Practical Typography by Matthew Butterickby Matthew Butterick
Hacker ApprovedRanked 4 of 12 design books by recommenders
Practical guide to typography, praised for clear, actionable advice on spacing, typefaces and text-based UX. Some critics dispute its hyperlink advice and say its claims lack empirical evidence.
Practical guide to typography, praised for clear, actionable advice on spacing, typefaces and text-based UX. Some critics dispute its hyperlink advice and say its claims lack empirical evidence.
13 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 10
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 77%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 10 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 3.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 8 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Clear, practical typography advice
“possibly the lowest effort/clearest improvement guideline in the book”
Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “Incomplete list of mistakes in the design of CSS” “tons of practical advice on typefaces and text-based UX”
Comment from 12 Jun 2026 in “Ask HN: Favorite text heavy blogs the are a joy to read” “absolutely fantastic material there”
Comment from 16 Sep 2026 in “Why I'm still bearish on LLMs after Navier-Stokes” Useful on spacing and typefaces
“valuable advice on choosing spacing between words over spacing between letters”
Comment from 25 Feb 2026 in “Justifying Text-Wrap: Pretty” “tons of practical advice on typefaces and text-based UX”
Comment from 12 Jun 2026 in “Ask HN: Favorite text heavy blogs the are a joy to read” Canonical online typography resource
“probably serves as the canonical online resource for that”
Comment from 25 Jul 2026 in “Em dashes are fucking amazing” “Butterick's is a wonderful resource”
Comment from 4 Apr 2026 in “Notes from from Butterick's Practical Typography” “i'm a big fan of web-native books”
Comment from 14 Sep 2026 on Hacker News Changed how people present information
“have changed the way I've approached presenting information”
Comment from 27 Mar 2026 in “The Legibility of Serif and Sans Serif Typefaces on Paper and Screens” “This would have been very helpful three years ago”
Comment from 19 Jan 2026 in “Dead Internet Theory”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Hyperlink styling advice criticized
“I would very strongly urge people to disregard his recommendations for representing hyperlinks.”
Comment from 27 Mar 2026 in “The Legibility of Serif and Sans Serif Typefaces on Paper and Screens” “Instead of just underlining hyperlinks, he has this demented nonsense”
Comment from 27 Mar 2026 in “The Legibility of Serif and Sans Serif Typefaces on Paper and Screens”
Other design books people recommend
The four most recommended other design books, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Design of Everyday Thingsby Don Norman | 29 | 2 | 94% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Refactoring UIby Adam Wathan and Steve Schoger | 14 | 3 | 82% | 3 | — | — |
| Don't Make Me Thinkby Steve Krug | 12 | 1 | 92% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Practical Typographyby Matthew ButterickThis page | 10 | 3 | 77% | 8 | — | Approved |
| A Pattern Languageby Christopher Alexander | 9 | 1 | 90% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
All 14 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“absolutely fantastic material there”
“i'm a big fan of web-native books”
“probably serves as the canonical online resource for that”
“tons of practical advice on typefaces and text-based UX”
“Butterick's is a wonderful resource”
“Instead of just underlining hyperlinks, he has this demented nonsense”
“his books are not grounded in empirical evidence”
“I would very strongly urge people to disregard his recommendations for representing hyperlinks.”
“have changed the way I've approached presenting information”
“valuable advice on choosing spacing between words over spacing between letters”
“Butterick's type books are great.”
“This would have been very helpful three years ago”
“will help you appreciate (and make!) good typography”
“possibly the lowest effort/clearest improvement guideline in the book”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.