Letter Spacing - Token Type
Letter Spacing Tokens define the horizontal distance between each glyph/character (related to its font size) as an individual property to be composed within a Typography Token. It is not intended to be applied to text elements directly.
Design decisions
Letter Spacing, also known as kerning or tracking, defines the horizontal distance between individual characters/glyphs of a word or other strings of text.
In CSS this property is called letter-spacing.
Letter Spacing decisions are typically used to style text elements to improve readability and creatively express a product or brand's visual language.
When we apply a Typography Composite Token to a text layer in Figma, these Letter Spacing values will change the text layer:
Default -
value is 0By default, the system uses the value determined by the Font Family
Characters/glyphs are closer together -
values less than 0Example
-2%Text styles with heavier Font Weight and larger Font Size to "tighten" headlines and display text on a marketing website.
Characters/glyphs are farther apart -
values greater than 0Example
1pxText styles with lighter Font Weight and smaller Font Size "relax" the account number and phone number in the settings page of a customer portal.
Possible values
Like all Tokens defining a dimension design decision, the value of a Letter Spacing Token must include a numeric value and, ideally, a unit of measure.
All Token Types that accept numeric values can use math equations to calculate their value in Tokens Studio.
Jump to the guide on Tokens with Math Values by selecting the card below to learn more.
Using Math in Token ValuesFor Letter Spacing Tokens, math might be used to convert a unitless number into a percentage.
Hard-coded values
The syntax used to write numeric values for the Letter Spacing property is important.
Be sure to avoid any spaces between numbers and units of measurement.
Units are always written in lowercase.
Value should always be greater than 0.
percentage (%)
To scale the Letter Spacing relative to Font Size the Token value will be defined with a percentage to match Figma's unique approach to typography.
When the Typography Composite Token is applied, the Plugin will apply the percentage as a multiplier of the Font Size.
This is different from the way we would define this relationship in code. In CSS, we might enter this as a number in em units, which Figma does not support, but Tokens Studio has written a custom Token Transformation to help.
↓ See the Transforming Tokens section below for more details.
Rem units (rem)
To support responsive design, you can define your Letter Spacing Token in rem units, and the Plugin automatically converts the value to the pixel equivalent when the Typography Composite Token is applied to the text element in Figma.
For example, a Paragraph Spacing Token with a value of -0.25rem, when applied as a Typography Composite Token, will have letters appear as -4pxcloser together in Figma.
Rem Units act as a multiplier of the base font size, so when a user changes their preferences to a larger font size or uses a zoom feature in your product, elements defined in rem units will respond accordingly.
The value of 1rem can be configured in the plugin settings for Base Font Size.
pixels (px)
While its not common, should you require the space between every character of text to remain static even when users change their preferences, the Letter Spacing value can be defined in pixel units. For example:
Be mindful that the fixed value in pixels means the Letter Spacing property is no longer related to the Font Size in the Typography Composite Token. If you change the Font Size, you'll also need to change the Letter Spacing value.
Units not supported by Figma
Tracking is another CSS property related to Letter Spacing, typically defined in px or em units
Figma does not allow em units but suggests the use of this formula to convert em units to percentages:
1000px tracking = 100% letter spacing = 1em letter-spacing (CSS)so a value of 4% would = 0.04em
You can still create Letter Spacing Tokens with these units using the Tokens Studio plugin.
When you apply them to design elements in Figma, the Token will be present and visible to engineers inspecting the design element in Figma, but the Token won't interact with the Letter Spacing property in Figma's UI.
It will be up to the engineers working to transform the design Tokens in Style Dictionary if they want to transform the values as you've entered them or change them in some way.
Values that reference another Token
When trying to reference another Token as the Value for a Letter Spacing Token, you will see you will see Tokens in the dropdown list that are:
Living in Token Sets that are currently active.
In the left menu on the plugin's Tokens page, a checkmark is visible next to the Token Set name.
Token Type is compatible:
The same =
letterSpacingdimensionnumber
However, like all Token Types, you can "force" a reference by manually entering the Token Name between curly brackets.
For example {token.name.here}
Jump to the guide on Token Values with References by selecting the card below to learn more.
Token Values with ReferencesW3C DTCG Token Format
Letter Spacing is not yet an official dedicated Token type in the W3C Design Token Community Group specifications.
However, it is mentioned as a required part of a Typography Token.
"The horizontal spacing between characters. The value of this property MUST be a valid dimension value or a reference to a dimension Token." - 9.7. Typography
Tokens Studio has added Letter Spacing as an unofficial Token Type to support Figma's unique approach to this text property which includes allowing the use of percentage as a value. If your Design Tokens are being used in code, we have included a transformation to correct this inconsistency, described below.
Transforming Tokens
Engineers typically transform Tokens used in code with Style Dictionary, which is tool-agnostic. Tokens coming from Tokens Studio require an additional step: @Tokens-studio/sd-transforms, an npm package that prepares Tokens for Style Dictionary.
When transforming Letter Spacing Tokens, there are specific configurations to be aware of.
Letter Spacing Token Values entered as a percentage to accommodate Figma's unique approach to Typography need to be converted to em units in CSS.
→ SD-Transforms Read-Me Doc, ts/size/css/letterspacing
The preprocessor in the SD-Transforms package will automatically convert the Tokens Studio specific Token Type of paragraphSpacing to align with the DTCG Format Token Type of dimension.
→ SD-Transforms Read-Me Doc, Using the preprocessor
Letter Spacing Tokens, as part of Typography Composite Tokens, requires the SD-Transforms option to expand composite Tokens into multiple Tokens.
Make sure you look at the generic SD-Transforms package to include this option, which allows you to further customize this transformation further using Style Dictionary.
→ SD-Transforms Read-Me Doc, Using Expand
Resources
Mentioned in this doc:
SD-Transforms - Read Me
Style Dictionary - https://styledictionary.com/
Design Tokens Community Group - W3C Draft
Design Tokens Community Group - 9.7 Typography
Figma resources:
Design in Figma - Explore Text Properties, Letter Spacing
CSS resources:
MDN Web Docs - letter-spacing
W3 Schools - letter spacing
Community resources:
None yet!
💡 Something to share? Submit it here!
Known issues and bugs
Tokens Studio Plugin GitHub - Open issues for Token Type Letter Spacing
None yet
🐞 If you are experiencing an issue not listed here, please reach out to us on the Troubleshooting channel of our community Slack, submit it on our feedback tool, or send us an email support@tokens.studio
Requests, roadmap and changelog
None
Last updated
Was this helpful?