Useful article, especially for beginners, because people get so used to using frameworks that they don't even know why modular scales exist.
One thing I'd point out is that choosing a ratio for heading sizes is just one small part of the bigger question of how to make a design feel harmonious and easy to read. Ratios can help establish a visual hierarchy, but there's more to it than applying a single multiplier to everything.
A ratio of 1.5 isn't the only valid choice, and it doesn't necessarily work well for both line-height and heading sizes. You might not notice much of a problem with paragraph text, but a line-height of 1.5 can create too much vertical space in multi-line headings. The sweet spot may be somewhere between 1.2 and 1.5. The author actually uses 1.1 for headings and 1.5 for body text, and the result looks good.
Even WCAG 2.2 makes it clear that the 1.5 line-height figure is about ensuring layouts don't break when users increase text spacing to those values, not a recommendation to use 1.5 by default. The point is to let users adjust spacing to suit their needs, without breaking the layout.
1
u/repolevedd 1d ago
Useful article, especially for beginners, because people get so used to using frameworks that they don't even know why modular scales exist.
One thing I'd point out is that choosing a ratio for heading sizes is just one small part of the bigger question of how to make a design feel harmonious and easy to read. Ratios can help establish a visual hierarchy, but there's more to it than applying a single multiplier to everything.
A ratio of 1.5 isn't the only valid choice, and it doesn't necessarily work well for both line-height and heading sizes. You might not notice much of a problem with paragraph text, but a line-height of 1.5 can create too much vertical space in multi-line headings. The sweet spot may be somewhere between 1.2 and 1.5. The author actually uses 1.1 for headings and 1.5 for body text, and the result looks good.
Even WCAG 2.2 makes it clear that the 1.5 line-height figure is about ensuring layouts don't break when users increase text spacing to those values, not a recommendation to use 1.5 by default. The point is to let users adjust spacing to suit their needs, without breaking the layout.