Brand & Design
What is typography?
The craft of arranging type (choosing typefaces, weights, sizes, and spacing) to give written language its visual personality.
Typography is the second-most-recognizable thing about a brand after the logo. The difference between Stripe and Square, between Apple and Microsoft, is largely a typography choice (Söhne vs Inter, San Francisco vs Segoe) and the spacing decisions wrapped around it.
For a website, typography breaks down into typeface (which font family), type scale (the ratio of heading to body sizes), measure (line length), leading (line height), tracking (letter spacing), and pairing (how heading and body fonts work together). Get the type scale right and almost everything else falls into place.
Brand.dev's font API returns the actual fonts a website uses, family names, weights, sources, and where each one appears. For brand-aware product UIs, replicating a customer's typography is the fastest path to a "this looks native to my brand" reaction.
How Brand.dev uses typography
Endpoints in the Brand.dev API where this concept comes up directly.
FAQ
Typography vs typeface vs font?
Typography is the discipline. A typeface is the design (Helvetica). A font is a specific instance (Helvetica Bold 16pt). Most casual usage treats typeface and font as synonyms.
How do I find what font a website uses?
In dev tools, inspect any text element and check font-family in computed styles. Or pass the domain to Brand.dev's font API and get back the structured list.
How many fonts should a brand use?
Two is plenty, one for headings, one for body. Three works for editorial sites; four starts looking accidental.