Content should always be composed to a baseline grid — a ladder of lines determining where each line of text starts. The baseline grid is crucial for maintaining your site’s vertical rhythm, allowing for ease of reading and a pleasing composition.
Surprisingly, many websites do not have any sort of baseline grid. Content is spaced arbitrarily, making it difficult to read, even if the user does not know why.
Flatiron is composed on a rigorous baseline grid, to ensure your content looks its best wherever it’s placed. The baseline grid even applies across sidebars and content, as well as inline asides such as blockquotes and code.
Not sold on the importance of vertical rhythm? Here are some articles from respected publications that explain the concept better than I can:
- 24 Ways: Compose to a Vertical Rhythm
- A List Apart: Setting Type on the Web to a Baseline Grid
- Khoi Vinh: The Funniest Grid You Ever Saw