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7 fresh ways of emphasizing text

Key points

Topics

  • We can go beyond simple bolded, highlighted or italicized text by combining, remixing, and/or altering common text styling
  • In today's post, I share: the fading highlight, stroke-only text, gradient text, typeface combos, inline icons, and circled text
  • Prioritize clarity, then creativity
  • Make sure whatever style you use aligns with the visual identity of the overall layout (the intended message)
  • Maintain internal consistency
  • Be careful with underlined text (clickability affordance)

Elevate your typography beyond simple bolded or highlighted text styling. Here are 7 fresh ways of emphasizing text to grab attention. Useful for highlighting keywords or just amplifying your words in general.

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We can go beyond simple bolded or highlighted text. Let’s have some fun with text styling.

The fading highlight

Relume executed this flawlessly. See it in action.

Stroke-only text

Emphasize with a gradient

Apple often makes use of this on their website.

Use a radial gradient

Beautifully executed on the Tella homepage.

Combine typefaces

The flow.ninja website makes use of this throughout all of their headings.

Inline icons

The hand-drawn circle

Text emphasis pro tips

  • Prioritize clarity. Your text needs to remain discernible and readable
  • Make sure the text emphasis style aligns with the visual identity of the layout. Think about mood lines here – Rounded lines might feel more playful and casual, while straight lines might feel more stern or authoritative
  • Be careful with stacking text styles
  • Maintain internal consistency. If your layout uses a certain type of text emphasis, stick with it throughout
  • Be careful with underlined text as it is typically viewed as a a clickable element (underlines convey a strong affordance of clickability)
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