Typography · Learn · Guide

Type styles

A type style is the concrete recipe for one role × size × emphasis — the exact values a component renders. Four everyday properties shape it, while provenance tells you where every value came from.

The recipe

Title×Medium×Baseline=titleMedium

A live type style from your working theme

The four properties

Weight

How heavy the strokes are (400 regular → 700 bold). The main signal of emphasis.

Style

Upright or italic — a shift in tone, not size.

Line-height

Vertical space per line. Larger for body reading, tighter for big headings.

Tracking

Letter-spacing. Big text usually wants slightly negative; small caps want positive.

Provenance model

Generated, derived, overridden

Every property carries its origin, so customization stays explainable.

Generated

The base, ratio, role metrics and typeface references produced the value.

Derived

An emphasized pair inherited its baseline recipe, then adjusted weight or tracking.

Overridden

You replaced a property on this specific style. That value now stays put until reset.

Override semantics

Broad recipe changes stop at a local override

Change the scale or a shared typeface and every generated style follows. Override one style’s weight, tracking, line-height, font or style and that property becomes yours. Later recipe changes still update the properties you did not override. Reset removes the local decision and reconnects the style to generation.

Variable-font axes · advanced

wghtWeight — the continuous version of weight.opszOptical size — reshapes letters for large versus small use.wdthWidth — condensed to expanded.slntSlant — a geometric lean, distinct from a true italic.