blob: 26872847ff2a62682e4c7e485d9c14bd7f032973 (
plain)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
|
<!doctype html>
<html lang="en" id="top">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
<link rel="icon" href="data:,">
<title>CSS: Indenting Text</title>
<link href="https://bt.ht/atom.xml" type="application/atom+xml" rel="alternate" title="Atom feed for blog posts" />
<style>*{box-sizing:border-box;}body{font-family:sans-serif;margin:0 auto;max-width:650px;padding:1rem;}img{max-width:100%;}pre{overflow:auto;}table{text-align:left;width:100%;}</style>
</head>
<nav>
<a href="#menu">Menu ↓</a>
</nav>
<main>
<h1>CSS: Indenting Text</h1>
<p>2019-04-05</p>
<p>A lot of developers tend to do the bare minimum when it comes to implementing proper website typography. This isn't an insult - I'm happy that typography is given any thought at all during development, I just believe more can always be done to improve upon it.</p>
<p>In today's <em>TypeTip</em> we're going to play around with the <code>text-indent</code> property, look into when it's best to use it and how to implement it properly.</p>
<h2>The property and browser support</h2>
<p>Browser support is actually pretty great for such a regularly over-looked CSS property. All major desktop and mobile browsers support it:</p>
<p><figure>
<img src="/public/images/text-indent-compatibility.webp" alt="Text indent browser compatibility">
<figcaption>Full support across all browsers.</figcaption>
</figure></p>
<p>Now that doesn't mean you should just slap this property on all your type elements and call it a day - there are specific use cases for <code>text-indent</code> and some basic rules to follow:</p>
<h2>Use Cases</h2>
<ol>
<li>Increasing readability of large text blocks that would otherwise overwhelm the reader</li>
<li>Replicating book or report typography layouts</li>
</ol>
<h2>Basic Rules</h2>
<ol>
<li>Best to set this property on inner type children only - meaning items like <code>p</code> or <code>blockquotes</code> instead of main headings</li>
<li>When used on paragraph tags it's best to target only <code>p</code> elements that directly follow a sibling tag (see "The CSS" below)</li>
</ol>
<h2>The CSS</h2>
<p>Adding the property is extremely trivial, all you need is the following:</p>
<pre><code>/* Best practice for paragraphs */
p + p {
text-indent: 1rem; /* whatever you want */
}
</code></pre>
<h2>Let's see it in action</h2>
<p><a href="https://codepen.io/bradleytaunt/pen/OGXLEd/">Live CodePen Example</a></p>
<footer role="contentinfo">
<h2>Menu Navigation</h2>
<ul id="menu">
<li><a href="/">Home</a></li>
<li><a href="/projects">Projects</a></li>
<li><a href="/uses">Uses</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki">Wiki</a></li>
<li><a href="/resume">Resume</a></li>
<li><a href="/colophon">Colophon</a></li>
<li><a href="/now">Now</a></li>
<li><a href="/donate">Donate</a></li>
<li><a href="/atom.xml">RSS</a></li>
<li><a href="#top">↑ Top of the page</a></li>
</ul>
<small>
Built with <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~bt/barf">barf</a>. <br>
Maintained with ♥ for the web. <br>
Proud supporter of <a href="https://usefathom.com/ref/DKHJVX">Fathom</a> & <a href="https://nextdns.io/?from=74d3p3h8">NextDNS</a>. <br>
The content for this site is <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/">CC-BY-SA</a>.<br> The <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~bt/bt.ht">code for this site</a> is <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~bt/bt.ht/tree/master/item/LICENSE">MIT</a>.
</small>
</footer>
|
