Heading font family

The design system doesn't style base HTML typography elements (like h1, h2, p, etc.) unless they're inside an element with the ds-content class. Instead, it provides heading classes (available on this page) corresponding to visual sizes. These classes can be applied to any heading elements, irrespective of their semantic heading level (h1 to h6). This approach allows teams to first choose the semantic heading level that make the most sense for the document and its accessibility and then choose a visual heading size class that fits the page's visual hierarchy.

Responsive typography

.ds-text-heading-5xl, ds-text-heading-4xl, and ds-text-heading-3xl classes are responsive by default.

To apply responsive typography elsewhere, use the font size utility class. Since the base typography margins and line height is measured in em units, they'll automatically adjust as you change the font size.

Headings Links

Links nested within elements styled with heading tags, or styled directly as headings, will render as links in the appropriate size and weight. There is no additional CSS class to apply, but Figma contains tokens specific to rendering links. Medium breakpoints are given as an example below.

Please note that in Figma, the color token is separate from the font token and needs to be applied independently.

Specific examples

On dark background

Eyebrow/Eyelash header

In some cases, it is better to group header elements into a header component. This can be referred to as the Eyelash/Eyebrow header where you have the main header and an optional top header (eyebrow) or bottom header (eyelash) header.

This is an optional header design.

Code

<main>
  <h1>I'm the first child of my parent.</h1>
  <h2>I'm not the first child of my parent</h2>
  <div>
    <h2>
      I'm actually the first child of my parent even though I'm not the first heading on the page
    </h2>
    <h2>I'm the last child of my parent</h2>
  </div>
  <h2>I'm also the last child of my parent</h2>
</main>

Style customization

The following CSS variables can be overridden to change the type sizes:

• --font-size-5xl
• --font-size-4xl
• --font-size-3xl
• --font-size-2xl
• --font-size-xl
• --font-size-lg
• --font-size-md, uses --font-size-base
• --font-size-sm

Guidance

The ds-content class

For pages that are mainly about written content or places where you want to use a standard mapping of heading-level styles to semantic heading levels, consider using the ds-content class.

Layout dos and don'ts

There should always be a parent/child relationship between headers and content on the page. Every header should have a relationship to something else on the page. This can apply to many different relationships like a header and a form group or a header and list of links. Stray headers or content should be reevaluated.

• Paragraph styles should never be used as a parent to another text element.
• Header elements should never have equal or smaller font size than the paragraph element.
• Not all paragraphs need a header, but all headers need children.
• Every page should have one heading 1 (H1)
• Headings style appearing under H1 should follow a logical order for information design and supporting various assistive technology devices/software.
• Don't use a smaller header font size than the body font size
• Don't use stray headers