Typeplate: Starterkit Cares For Decent Typography – Doesn’t Care For Web Design

Typography and web design should go hand in hand. But since the possibilities to implement proper typography have only just emerged in the last few years, a lot of developers are stuck in their traditional mindset. Of course everybody will agree that typography is important, but when it comes down to fish or cut bait, often only the bare necessities get done. With Typeplate, there is a chance that this might change, as Typeplate doesn't exactly transform typography on the web to a no-brainer, but it really simplifies the process.

Typeplate: Sass, LESS, Stylus, CSS

Typeplate comes in different flavors, which don't always stay in total sync. Originally started as a Sass project, the starterkit is now available in the shape of LESS and Stylus, too. Of course they provide pure CSS also. If you go for pure CSS you should not embed the stylesheet as a file, but copy the definitions into your main stylesheet, at least if you go with the recommendations of the Typeplate team. Typeplate exists in version 1.01 at the time of this writing.

Typeplate: Timeless Style Philosophy

Typeplate relies on a clean style philosophy. Typography in Typeplate follows classical principles, thus making for a decent, but at the same time not very modern look. You can always build on the foundation of Typeplate and evolve it to something progressive, if you want to.

Headings, indentation, word wraps, hyphenation, small caps or drop caps. All these topics are covered. Blockquotes, code blocks, definitions, foot notes and simple tables as well as the presentation of small test add to the feature set.

Typeplate is under heavy construction. While I write, the repo shows frequent changes. You can download Typeplate for free from Github. If you are a user of Bower, installation is even easier.

Besides being useful in regard to its intended use cases, I like the aspect of professional development most. Working with Typeplate you can dig deeper into Sass, and even LESS or Stylus in direct side-by-side comparison. If you have just been getting started with preprocessors, Typeplate offers you the possibility to continue your journey taking grand strides.

Related Links:

• Typeplate | Github Repository
• Typeplate | Project Homepage