Butterick’s Practical Typography

Matthew Butterick's book is the one I send to every client who asks why their text "feels off". It's free to read online, opinionated in the best way, and written for people who make documents — which, today, is everyone.

The chapter I return to most is the one on line length. His advice — somewhere between 45 and 90 characters per line — is the reason this blog is one narrow column on every screen.

If you only read one part, read the summary of key rules. It fits on one page and fixes most of what goes wrong.