jQuery plugins for awesome web typography

Typography is a very important part of a website design. But it is also often neglected. In this article, I have compiled the most awesome jQuery plugin to take total control of your site typography.

FitText.js

FitText is a simple jQuery plugin that automatically make a text fit the width of its parent element. Perfect for awesome, responsive headlines!
Download: http://fittextjs.com/

Lettering.js

Although CSS3 and the @font-face directive have definitely improved web typography, it doesn’t offer complete down-to-the-letter control. This is why Lettering.js have been created. If you’re looking for a simple solution to get the control of each individual letter of your headline, then this plugin is for you.
Download: http://letteringjs.com/

Kern.js

When I create design or front-end code, I love being able to test things in my brother. Kern.js is not a jQuery plugin, but a bookmarklet that allow you to edit texts from websites: Make them bigger, rotate letters, add space… A very useful tool for testing and finding new possibilities.
Download: http://www.kernjs.com/

SlabText.js

SlabText is a very useful jQuery plugin that splits headlines into rows before resizing each row to fill the available horizontal space. Basically, it means that your headline will always look great whatever of the client screen size. A must-have for responsive websites!
Download: http://www.frequency-decoder.com/2012/01/08/slabtext…

Bacon.js

Bacon is a jQuery plugin that allows you to wrap text around a bezier curve or a line. Very cool for magazine-like wrapped text effects!
Download: http://baconforme.com/

Approach

Approach is an interesting plugin if you’re looking to give a text (For exemple, a call-to-action button) a special effect to attract the reader attention. This plugin works in a very similar manner to jQuery animate, but it animates over distance instead of time. The closer you get to the text, the more the style will be applied.
Download: http://srobbin.com/jquery-plugins/approach/

Arctext.js

Here is another cool plugin, based on Lettering.js, which arrange each letter along a curved path. Can be really nice for titles, headlines or other fancy texts!
Download: http://tympanus.net/codrops/2012/01/24/arctext-js-curving…

jMetronome

According to 24ways.org, vertical rhythm is the spacing and arrangement of text as the reader descends the page and is contributed to by three factors: font size, line height and margin or padding. All of these factors must calculated with care in order that the rhythm is maintained.

jMetronome is a jQuery plugin which can take care of maintaining a correct vertical rhythm on your pages, even if they contain media elements such as images or videos.

Download: http://www.fortes.com/2008/jmetronome-using-jquery-to-keep-typographic-rhythm