Arial, used with intention.
DTTT advisory deliverables use Arial throughout. The choice is structural: it renders identically across Word, PowerPoint, Google Docs, email clients, and the browser. The system's job is to make Arial feel intentional through optical refinement — careful sizing, gentle negative tracking on display, and a tight scale.
A non-negotiable that earns its keep.
The temptation to specify a brand display face is real. The system refuses it. Every output DTTT produces eventually leaves HTML — exported to Word, dropped into a deck, forwarded as an email — and a brand face that survives only in the browser is a brand face the practice cannot rely on. Arial survives every container.
The corollary: when Arial reads as flat or generic, the answer is to refine the typography, not the typeface. Sizing, tracking, weight contrast, and rhythm do most of the work.
font-family: Arial, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif;
Helvetica Neue and Helvetica are listed as fallbacks for environments without Arial; in practice every target environment has Arial. Do not add web font imports for the brand face.
Eight steps. Tight, deliberate, complete.
The scale is small for a reason: every step has a clear job and there is no overlap. When you find yourself reaching for an in-between size, the answer is one of the existing steps used differently — never a ninth size.
The same scale, in points and pixels.
Word, PowerPoint and PDF think in points; HTML thinks in rems. The system's scale is calibrated so that a point value in a Word advisory matches the visual weight of the equivalent rem step in HTML.
| Step | HTML (rem) | HTML (px) | Word (pt) | PPTX (pt) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hero | 2.5 | 40 | — | 40 |
| H1 | 1.75 | 28 | 18 | 28 |
| H2 | 1.25 | 20 | 14 | 20 |
| H3 | 1.0 | 16 | 11 | 16 |
| Body | 0.9375 | 15 | 10 (advisory) | 14 |
| Body small | 0.8125 | 13 | 9 | 12 |
| Label | 0.6875 | 11 | 8 (caps) | 10 (caps) |
| Micro | 0.625 | 10 | 7 (footnotes) | 9 |
The Word advisory baseline is 10pt body — non-negotiable for written advisories. PPTX minimums are higher because slides are read at distance.
Use weight contrast, not weight inflation.
| Property | Rule |
|---|---|
| Weights | Only 400 (regular) and 700 (bold). No 600, no 500. Arial's intermediate weights vary across systems. |
| Line-height | Display 1.2 · Headings 1.4 · Body 1.6 · Loose body 1.75. Never below 1.2 even for hero. |
| Tracking | Negative on display (−0.015em hero, −0.01em h1, −0.005em h2). Zero on body. Positive on uppercase (0.1em labels, 0.06em micro). |
| Italics | Reserved for: blockquotes, document titles inline (SBR Session Outcomes), and clarifying asides. Never for emphasis — use bold. |
| Caps | Reserved for labels and micro. Never for headings or body. |
| Underline | Reserved for links. Never for emphasis. |
Use 700 against 400 to create hierarchy. A bold lead-in followed by regular continuation is preferred over h3-h4-h5 stacks.
Trust the negative tracking on display sizes. Arial at 28px+ benefits from −0.01em. The system applies it via tokens.
Don't use semibold (600) — it renders inconsistently across Arial implementations. Use 700.
Don't import Inter, Helvetica Neue, or any web font as a brand face. The system is Arial.
Don't set body below 13px in HTML or 9pt in print, even for "footnotes" — use micro (10/7pt) sparingly and only for source references.