Typography Styles in Figma, commonly called Text Styles, are reusable collections of typography properties that help designers maintain consistent text formatting across a design. A Text Style can define properties such as font family, font size, font weight, line height, letter spacing, paragraph spacing, indentation, decoration, letter case, lists, OpenType features, and other supported typography settings.
Typography Styles are especially important when creating websites, mobile applications, dashboards, design systems, landing pages, and enterprise products because they allow designers to establish a predictable typographic hierarchy and reuse it across multiple screens and components.
For professional Figma learning and practical design-system training, visit JustAcademy Figma Training and Register for Figma Course Demo.
Typography Styles are reusable text-property definitions in Figma. They allow designers to save a combination of typography properties as one named style and apply that style to one or more text layers.
For example, instead of manually setting a heading to Inter, 32px, Bold, 40px line height, and -1% letter spacing every time, a designer can create a style called Heading/H1 and reuse it.
Typography Style = A reusable collection of text formatting properties used to maintain consistent typography across a Figma design.
In Figma, the feature is generally referred to as a Text Style. The term Typography Style is often used conceptually to describe reusable typography definitions. Throughout these notes, both terms refer to reusable text styling systems in Figma.
Typography is one of the most important parts of interface design. A consistent type system makes content easier to read, improves visual hierarchy, and creates a professional and predictable user experience.
A well-designed typography system can act as a source of truth for the text hierarchy of a product. Instead of each designer choosing arbitrary font sizes, weights, and line heights, the team can use predefined Text Styles.
Typography Decisions
↓
Typography Scale
↓
Text Styles
↓
Components
↓
Screens
↓
Consistent User Interface
Figma Text Styles can store several typography-related properties together.
| Property | Supported in Text Styles |
|---|---|
| Font Family | Yes |
| Font Weight | Yes |
| Font Size | Yes |
| Line Height | Yes |
| Letter Spacing | Yes |
| Paragraph Spacing | Yes |
| Indentation | Yes |
| Decoration | Yes |
| Letter Case | Yes |
| Lists | Yes |
| OpenType Features | Yes |
| Text Alignment | No |
| Color / Fill | No |
| Text Resizing Behavior | No |
Font family defines the typeface used by the text. Examples include Inter, Roboto, Poppins, Montserrat, Open Sans, and many other fonts available to the designer.
Font Family:
Inter
Font weight controls how thick or visually heavy the characters appear.
Light
Regular
Medium
Semi Bold
Bold
Extra Bold
Font size determines the visual size of text. A typography system normally uses different sizes for display text, headings, body content, labels, captions, and other UI elements.
Display: 48px
H1: 40px
H2: 32px
H3: 24px
Body: 16px
Caption: 12px
Line height controls the vertical distance between lines of text. Appropriate line height improves readability and helps create a balanced text block.
Font Size:
16px
Line Height:
24px
Letter spacing controls the horizontal space between characters. It can be useful for headings, uppercase labels, navigation items, buttons, and display typography.
Letter Spacing:
0px
Example:
BUTTON LABEL
Paragraph spacing controls the space between paragraphs and can be included in a Text Style where appropriate.
Text Styles can include supported indentation properties. This is useful when creating structured content such as documentation, articles, lists, and editorial layouts.
Text decoration can include treatments such as underline and strikethrough where supported by the style.
Underline
Strikethrough
Typography settings can define letter-case transformations such as uppercase, lowercase, capitalize, and supported small-cap treatments.
UPPERCASE
lowercase
Capitalize
Text styles can include supported list properties. This can help create consistent typography for structured content and documentation.
Figma supports OpenType features for fonts that provide them. These features can control advanced typographic behavior such as ligatures, stylistic alternatives, and numeral treatments.
Typography hierarchy establishes different levels of importance for text. A strong hierarchy helps users understand which content is most important and how different pieces of information relate to one another.
Display
↓
Heading 1
↓
Heading 2
↓
Heading 3
↓
Body
↓
Caption
↓
Helper Text
Display styles are usually used for large, highly prominent text such as hero headlines, landing-page titles, marketing statements, or major product messages.
Display/Large
Display/Medium
Display/Small
Heading styles provide consistent typography for section titles and content hierarchy.
Heading/H1
Heading/H2
Heading/H3
Heading/H4
Heading/H5
Heading/H6
Body styles are used for paragraphs, descriptions, articles, instructions, and other primary content.
Body/Large
Body/Medium
Body/Small
Caption styles are useful for supporting information, metadata, image captions, timestamps, and secondary descriptions.
Caption/Regular
Caption/Medium
Labels are commonly used for form fields, controls, filters, badges, and compact UI elements.
Label/Large
Label/Medium
Label/Small
Buttons often require dedicated text styles because their typography may use specific font sizes, weights, letter spacing, and case transformations.
Button/Primary
Button/Secondary
Button/Small
Navigation typography should remain consistent across headers, sidebars, menus, tabs, and navigation links.
Navigation/Primary
Navigation/Secondary
Navigation/Active
Navigation/Disabled
Helper text provides additional information beneath fields or controls. A dedicated style can keep its size, weight, and line height consistent.
Helper/Default
Helper/Error
Helper/Success
Style Name:
Heading/H1
Font:
Inter
Weight:
Bold
Size:
40px
Line Height:
48px
Letter Spacing:
-0.5px
Style Name:
Body/Medium
Font:
Inter
Weight:
Regular
Size:
16px
Line Height:
24px
Letter Spacing:
0px
Text Styles can be applied to an entire text layer or to selected text within a text layer. This is useful when one paragraph contains different semantic text treatments, such as a normal sentence containing a linked phrase.
Paragraph Text
↓
Select Specific Words
↓
Apply Text Style
↓
Only Selected Text Uses the Style
Multiple text layers can be selected and updated using a common Text Style. This is useful when standardizing existing screens or migrating a design to a new typography system.
A Text Style can be edited when the typography system needs to change. Editing a local style updates the text layers that use that style.
Existing Style
Heading/H1
↓
Change Font Size
40px → 44px
↓
Update Style
↓
All Connected H1 Text
↓
Updated Typography
Detaching a Text Style removes the connection between a text layer and the style. The text layer keeps its current typography properties but can then be modified independently.
Color is not included as a typography property in Text Styles. Text can separately use Color Styles or color variables for its fill.
Text Style
├── Font Family
├── Font Weight
├── Font Size
├── Line Height
└── Letter Spacing
Color
└── Applied Separately
Heading/H1
+
Text/Primary
↓
Final Heading Appearance
Effects such as shadows or other supported visual effects are separate from Text Styles. A text layer can use typography properties together with color and effect styles.
Text Styles are especially powerful when used inside components. For example, a card component can use a heading style, body style, metadata style, and action label style.
Text Styles
↓
Component Typography
↓
Component Instances
↓
Multiple Screens
A professional design system normally defines a structured typography scale instead of allowing every screen to use arbitrary font sizes. Text Styles make this system reusable across the product.
A typography scale is a predefined set of font sizes and related properties that establishes a consistent relationship between different text levels.
Display: 48px
H1: 40px
H2: 32px
H3: 24px
H4: 20px
Body: 16px
Small: 14px
Caption: 12px
A modular scale can use a consistent mathematical relationship between sizes. The exact scale should be selected according to the product's content, platform, and visual requirements.
Desktop interfaces often have larger display and heading sizes because more screen space is available. A desktop typography system should still maintain clear relationships between headings and body content.
Mobile interfaces generally require careful consideration of available width, readability, and line wrapping. Typography styles should be tested on realistic mobile layouts rather than judged only on a desktop canvas.
Responsive designs may require typography adjustments at different screen sizes. Typography systems should be tested across desktop, tablet, and mobile layouts to ensure that hierarchy, readability, and wrapping remain effective.
Desktop
H1 = 48px
Line Height = 56px
Tablet
H1 = 40px
Line Height = 48px
Mobile
H1 = 32px
Line Height = 40px
Font selection affects the personality, readability, and overall visual language of a product. Choose fonts according to the product's audience, platform, brand identity, and content requirements.
Some designs use more than one typeface, such as one family for headings and another for body content. If using multiple families, define clear rules so the pairing remains consistent.
Heading:
Montserrat
Body:
Inter
A single font family can simplify a design system and create a consistent visual language.
Inter
├── Regular
├── Medium
├── Semi Bold
└── Bold
A multiple-font system can create stronger visual contrast but requires clear documentation and careful usage.
Display:
Playfair Display
Interface:
Inter
Font weight can help establish hierarchy without constantly changing font families or sizes.
Display → Bold
Heading → Semi Bold
Body → Regular
Caption → Medium
Disabled → Regular
Line height should be chosen according to font size, font characteristics, content length, and intended reading experience. Large headings often use tighter line height than body paragraphs.
| Text Type | Typical Approach |
|---|---|
| Display | Tighter line height |
| Heading | Moderate line height |
| Body | More generous line height |
| Caption | Compact but readable |
Letter spacing should be used carefully. Large display text may benefit from slightly tighter spacing, while uppercase labels may sometimes benefit from increased spacing.
Uppercase text is often used for compact labels, navigation, metadata, or category indicators. Increased letter spacing can sometimes improve readability for uppercase text.
Label/Small
Case: Uppercase
Weight: Medium
Letter Spacing: 0.5px
Body text should prioritize readability. Avoid excessively small font sizes, overly tight line heights, and extreme letter spacing.
Headings should establish hierarchy without becoming difficult to scan. Consider font size, weight, line height, text length, and responsive wrapping.
Text wrapping controls how content breaks across lines. Designers should choose wrapping behavior according to the purpose of the text and test it with realistic content.
Balanced wrapping can be useful for short headlines, buttons, badges, and other compact text where a visually even line distribution is desirable.
Pretty wrapping can help reduce awkward line endings in longer text by improving line-break distribution. It can be useful for body copy and descriptions.
Wrapping behavior should be evaluated together with the Text Style, text container width, and layout structure. A strong typography system should remain usable when content length changes.
Button typography should clearly communicate the action while fitting comfortably within the button's available space.
Button/Primary
Font: Inter
Weight: Semi Bold
Size: 14px
Line Height: 20px
Case: None
Form/Label
Form/Input
Form/Helper
Form/Error
Form/Placeholder
Each style can be optimized for its specific role while maintaining a consistent type system.
Navigation typography should be easy to scan and should clearly communicate active, inactive, and disabled states.
Navigation/Item
Navigation/Active
Navigation/Secondary
Navigation/Disabled
Tables often require compact but readable typography for headers, values, metadata, and status information.
Table/Header
Table/Body
Table/Number
Table/Caption
Dashboards commonly require display styles for metrics, heading styles for sections, body styles for descriptions, and compact styles for metadata.
Dashboard/Metric
Dashboard/Heading
Dashboard/Body
Dashboard/Label
Dashboard/Caption
Ecommerce/Product-Title
Ecommerce/Product-Price
Ecommerce/Product-Discount
Ecommerce/Product-Metadata
Ecommerce/CTA
Mobile typography should be designed around smaller screens, touch interfaces, readable content widths, and clear hierarchy.
Mobile/Display
Mobile/Heading
Mobile/Body
Mobile/Label
Mobile/Caption
Semantic names describe the purpose of a text style instead of only describing its size.
Heading/H1
Body/Medium
Label/Small
Button/Primary
Size-based names describe the numerical or visual size of typography.
Text/48
Text/40
Text/32
Text/24
Text/16
Text/14
Text/12
| Semantic Naming | Size-Based Naming |
|---|---|
| Heading/H1 | Text/40 |
| Body/Medium | Text/16 |
| Caption | Text/12 |
| Button/Primary | Text/14 |
Display/Large
Display/Medium
Heading/H1
Heading/H2
Heading/H3
Body/Large
Body/Medium
Body/Small
Label/Large
Label/Medium
Label/Small
Caption/Regular
Button/Primary
Button/Secondary
Slash naming can organize related Text Styles into logical groups and makes large style libraries easier to navigate.
Typography
├── Display
├── Heading
├── Body
├── Label
├── Caption
├── Button
├── Navigation
└── Helper
Descriptions should explain the intended use of a Text Style.
Name:
Heading/H1
Description:
Use for primary page headings and major content titles.
Local Text Styles are available within the current Figma file. They can be reused across text layers in that file.
Text Styles can be published to a shared library so that other files can use the same typography system according to the available library and permissions.
A typography library allows teams to establish shared text styles that can be consumed by multiple design files.
Design System File
↓
Create Text Styles
↓
Review Typography
↓
Publish Library
↓
Product Design Files
↓
Apply Shared Text Styles
Publishing a library makes reusable styles available to other files. When a published style is updated in the source library, consuming files can review and accept available updates according to their workflow.
Published styles should be edited in the source library file by someone with appropriate edit access. The updated style can then be published so consuming files can receive the new version.
Text Styles and Variables serve different purposes. Text Styles package multiple typography properties together, while variables are useful for reusable values and systems that require modes or dynamic values.
| Text Style | Variable |
|---|---|
| Groups typography properties | Stores a reusable value |
| Useful for complete text treatments | Useful for token systems |
| Can define font, size, weight, line height, spacing | Can represent individual configurable values |
| Useful for semantic typography roles | Useful for scalable variable systems |
A typography token system can define values such as font families, font sizes, weights, line heights, and letter spacing. These values can then support a broader design-system architecture.
Typography Tokens
├── Font Family
├── Font Size
├── Font Weight
├── Line Height
└── Letter Spacing
FontSize/12
FontSize/14
FontSize/16
FontSize/20
FontSize/24
FontSize/32
FontSize/40
FontSize/48
Display/Large
Heading/H1
Heading/H2
Body/Medium
Body/Small
Label/Medium
Caption/Regular
| Primitive | Semantic |
|---|---|
| FontSize/40 | Heading/H1 |
| FontSize/16 | Body/Medium |
| FontSize/12 | Caption/Regular |
| FontWeight/700 | Heading/Bold |
Primitive Typography Values
↓
Semantic Typography Roles
↓
Text Styles
↓
Components
↓
Pages
↓
Product
Consistency means similar content should use similar typography. For example, all primary page headings should follow the same hierarchy unless a deliberate design rule requires a variation.
Creating a separate style for every small variation can make a typography system difficult to understand. Start with a controlled hierarchy and expand only when there is a clear design requirement.
Names such as Text Final, Heading New, Font 2, or Big Text make systems difficult to maintain.
Two Text Styles may contain identical properties but have different names. Regular audits can identify and remove unnecessary duplication.
Using too many font families can make a product visually inconsistent. Most interfaces benefit from a controlled and documented font strategy.
Font availability is important when collaborating. If team members use different font versions or unavailable fonts, text may reformat unexpectedly. A shared and controlled font strategy helps prevent these issues.
Accessible typography involves more than selecting a Text Style. Designers should consider readable font sizes, appropriate line heights, sufficient contrast, clear hierarchy, and responsive behavior.
Text color is separate from Text Style, but typography and color work together to determine readability. Always evaluate text against its background.
Always test Text Styles with short and long content. A style that looks excellent with a two-word heading may behave differently with a long heading.
Text resizing behavior is separate from the typography properties stored in Text Styles. Designers should configure text-layer layout behavior according to the requirements of the design.
When Text Styles are used inside Auto Layout components, designers should test different content lengths to ensure the component responds correctly.
Text Style
↓
Text Layer
↓
Auto Layout
↓
Component
↓
Different Content Lengths
↓
Responsive Component
A scalable design system can combine typography tokens, Text Styles, variables, and components. The goal is to separate raw values from semantic usage and reusable UI patterns.
Create a complete typography system for a modern website.
Create a mobile application typography system containing styles for app headers, navigation, cards, forms, buttons, alerts, and supporting text.
Mobile/Title
Mobile/Heading
Mobile/Body
Mobile/Label
Mobile/Button
Mobile/Caption
Mobile/Helper
Create a dashboard containing metric cards, charts, tables, navigation, filters, and alerts. Assign a dedicated Text Style to every semantic text role.
Product/Title
Product/Price
Product/Discount
Product/Metadata
Product/Rating
Product/Button
Checkout/Heading
Checkout/Body
Checkout/Label
Create a central design-system file containing typography scales, semantic Text Styles, descriptions, documentation, sample components, and realistic UI examples.
A typography audit checks whether the existing design follows the intended type system.
Existing Screens
↓
Audit Typography
↓
Identify Repeated Patterns
↓
Define Typography Scale
↓
Create Text Styles
↓
Rename and Organize
↓
Apply Styles
↓
Test Components
↓
Check Accessibility
↓
Publish Library
↓
Document System
Brand Requirements
↓
Font Selection
↓
Typography Scale
↓
Semantic Roles
↓
Text Styles
↓
Components
↓
Responsive Testing
↓
Accessibility Review
↓
Library Publishing
↓
Ongoing Maintenance
| Concept | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Text Style | Reusable collection of typography properties |
| Font Family | Typeface used by the text |
| Font Weight | Thickness of characters |
| Font Size | Visual size of text |
| Line Height | Vertical spacing between lines |
| Letter Spacing | Horizontal spacing between characters |
| Text Hierarchy | Visual ranking of text content |
| Typography Scale | Structured set of text sizes and related properties |
| Local Style | Style stored in the current file |
| Published Style | Style shared through a library |
| Semantic Naming | Naming based on intended purpose |
A Text Style is a reusable collection of typography properties that can be applied to text layers.
It can include properties such as font family, font weight, font size, line height, letter spacing, paragraph spacing, indentation, decoration, letter case, lists, and supported OpenType features.
No. Color or fill is separate from the typography properties stored in a Text Style. A text layer can use a Color Style or color variable separately.
Yes. A Text Style can be applied to an entire text layer or a selected portion of text.
A typography scale is a structured set of text sizes and related properties that creates consistent visual hierarchy.
They communicate the intended role of a style and make the design system easier to understand and maintain.
A local style exists in the current file, while a published style can be shared through a library for use in other files.
Yes. Users with appropriate edit access can edit local styles, while published styles are edited in their source library file.
Text layers using the style can receive the updated typography properties, helping maintain consistency across the design.
They allow component typography to remain consistent and make large-scale typography changes easier to manage.
Because text length can affect wrapping, component dimensions, readability, and responsive behavior.
They provide reusable, named typography definitions that can be organized, documented, shared through libraries, and applied consistently across products.
Typography Styles are one of the most important tools for building a consistent and scalable typography system in Figma. By defining reusable combinations of font family, weight, size, line height, spacing, and other supported properties, designers can establish a clear visual hierarchy and reduce repetitive formatting work.
A professional typography system should use meaningful names, controlled type scales, semantic roles, clear descriptions, reusable Text Styles, responsive testing, accessibility checks, and shared libraries where appropriate. When Text Styles are combined with components, Color Styles, Variables, and other design-system features, they provide a strong foundation for creating consistent digital products.
To learn Figma from fundamentals through advanced design-system workflows, visit JustAcademy Figma Training and Register for Figma Course Demo.
