Why does a wordmark need a separate small-size cut?

Because optically correcting for size cannot be done by scaling. Below about 20 pixels a thin stroke falls under one pixel and disappears, counters close, and capitals begin to touch. The small cut thickens the weight, opens the tracking and often simplifies the shapes, which is a different drawing rather than a larger scale.

What does the hairline risk readout mean?

It is a statement about the face's category rather than a measurement. Serif faces lose their fine strokes first as they shrink, display faces are built from heavier forms and hold up longest, and text sans faces sit between the two. It tells you where to look on the ladder rather than what you will see.

Why add tracking as the size drops?

Because spacing that reads correctly at 96 pixels looks crowded at 16. The counters and sidebearings shrink with the glyphs while the eye needs proportionally more separation, so capitals in particular need a little positive tracking per step down. The check table puts the figure at roughly 0.02em per step.

How accurate is the wordmark width readout?

It is an estimate. The width is the character count times the size times an average per-character factor that the tracking adjusts, so a face with unusually wide or narrow forms will differ from the figure. It is useful for comparing two settings of the same word rather than for setting a precise container width.

Should a wordmark be used as the favicon?

Only if it is two or three characters. At 16 pixels a longer word becomes a grey texture and loses its letterforms, which is why the tool's check suggests the standalone mark for anything longer. The monogram or mark carries the identity at that size while the full wordmark stays for roomier placements.

Logo Type Tester

Wordmark

Word or nameFace

Logo sizepx

Trackingem

Weight

CaseMark lockup

Hairline risk when scaled downmoderate

Counter survivallow — strokes hold

Approx wordmark width340px

Favicon checkuse the mark, not the wordmark

Logo lockup

RACIRA

Small-size ladder

12pxRACIRA

16pxRACIRA

20pxRACIRA

24pxRACIRA

Below about 20px a wordmark usually needs a dedicated cut: heavier weight, wider tracking, and often a simplified shape (the padded, spaced caps). Testing the same settings at both sizes shows the gap.

Scaling checks

Check	What to look for
Stroke weight at 16px	Any stroke that thins to a single pixel has to be thickened or dropped.
Counter openings	Counters in e, a, o must keep a visible hole at the smallest size.
Tracking at small sizes	Add ~0.02em per step down to keep capitals from touching.
Lockup alignment	The cap-height of the type should align to the optical centre of the mark, not its box centre.
Monochrome test	The mark and wordmark must survive pure black, pure white and one flat colour.

css output

.wordmark {
  font-family: 'Space Grotesk', sans-serif;
  font-size: 6.0000rem;
  font-weight: 700;
  letter-spacing: 0.04em;
  text-transform: uppercase;
  line-height: 1;
  /* a wordmark should not wrap: */
  white-space: nowrap;
}

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Type Hierarchy Planner

Plan headings and body sizes

The logo type tester sets a wordmark at logo size and again at a ladder down to 12 pixels, then reports the features that break first when a face is scaled down. Wordmarks fail at sizes the designer never previews, which is the whole reason the ladder exists.

What is Logo Type Tester?

The logo type tester takes a word or a company name, sets it in a chosen face and shows the same setting twice: once at logo size, where it will be judged, and once down a ladder of 12, 16, 20 and 24 pixels, where it will actually be seen most often.

The controls map to the decisions a wordmark makes, and each one has a readout attached.

Face and weight, from 300 to 800, with the counter-survival readout keyed to the weight: below 500 the light strokes are flagged as vanishing under 20 pixels.
Tracking, from minus 0.05 to 0.3 em, plus the case setting, because uppercase is the common wordmark choice and it needs positive tracking far more than sentence case.
Logo size from 24 to 200 pixels, which sets the size of the reference setting and the approximate width readout, computed as the character count times the size times a per-character factor adjusted by the tracking.
Mark lockup, either the wordmark alone or a placeholder mark to the left of or above it, which is where the alignment question appears: a cap height should meet the optical centre of the mark rather than its box centre.

The scaling checks the tool states are the practical part. Any stroke that thins to a single pixel at 16 pixels has to be thickened or dropped. Counters in e, a and o must keep a visible hole at the smallest size, which is why light weights and tight apertures fail first. Capitals need roughly 0.02em more tracking for each step down so they do not touch. The lockup alignment is judged against the mark rather than the line box. And the monochrome test remains the arbiter: a mark that needs two colours to separate its letters has letterform problems rather than colour problems.

Two verifications are reported directly. Hairline risk comes from the face's category, flagging serifs as the first to thin out and display faces as the most resilient. The favicon check reports that a wordmark of more than two or three characters should hand the small size to a standalone mark instead, since a wordmark at 16 pixels is a texture rather than a name.

What the tool does not settle has to be checked elsewhere.

The small-size ladder is fixed at four sizes, so intermediate steps have to be checked in a browser.
The width readout is an approximation based on an average character factor, not a measurement of the actual face.
Nothing rasterises the wordmark, so the favicon itself is not produced here.
The exported CSS sets white-space so the mark cannot wrap, which is correct for a wordmark but needs care inside a narrow container.
Contrast against the background is not evaluated, so a wordmark can be exported in a colour that disappears on its surface.

Use it before a wordmark is locked, and again when a mark that looked fine on a slide fails in a browser tab.

How to use Logo Type Tester

Enter the real name, not a placeholder, since its length and letter combinations decide whether the mark fits a lockup at all.
Choose the face, weight and case, then set tracking while watching the width readout and the counter-survival note.
Read the small-size ladder and the two risk readouts, and note which feature fails first as the size drops.
Copy the CSS for the large setting and plan the small cut separately if the ladder showed a break.

When to use Logo Type Tester vs related tools

Reach for it when a wordmark is about to be locked and has only been seen at presentation size, when a mark that works on a slide dissolves in a browser tab, or when someone needs the argument for a dedicated small cut with heavier weight and wider tracking. The small-size ladder is the evidence. For the mark beside the words, the monogram letter designer covers initials, the type hierarchy planner sets the rest of the page around the lockup, and the font pairing suggester finds a face for the supporting text.

Privacy & Security

This tool runs entirely in your browser — no data ever leaves your device. There is no server round-trip, no upload, no logging, and no account required. Your input is processed locally using client-side JavaScript and is never stored, transmitted, or accessible to anyone else. When you close the tab, everything disappears.