Font Size & Style

Font is one of the most influential elements in cartographic design. It shapes how readers perceive hierarchy, navigate the map, and interpret geographic information. This module provides an interactive environment where you can experiment with font families, sizes, weights, spacing, case, and halo effects, and instantly see the results on a real cartographic base map.

The main font models

In this text-only area, you can change font size, spacing, casing, and halo properties to understand each typographic parameter without depending on the map.

  • Font family – Compare common typefaces: Inter, Noto Sans, Noto Serif, Roboto.
  • Font size – Adjusts basic legibility and visual dominance.
  • Font weight – Controls hierarchy (heavier draws attention).
  • Letter spacing – Helps ALL-CAPS labels; negative values squeeze text.
  • Case – Upper/lower/capitalize changes label shapes and rhythm.
  • Halo – Improves contrast on busy backgrounds; too thick can look “glowy”.

Sample labels

Try changing the font family and other properties, then imagine how these labels would look on a busy map background.

  • Germany
  • Switzerland
  • Austria
  • Czech Republic
  • France

Hands-on

Note: For the map, available font families are read directly from the MapTiler style (font stacks). The Explanation section demonstrates the same parameters using CSS only.

References