Just as musicians have employed the inherent magic of certain numerical relationships to lend consonance and/or dissonance to their musical scores, and just as architects, scribes, typographers, and craftsmen have used these ratios to lend humane or aesthetically pleasing proportions to their buildings, books, passages, and furniture so too can we [web professionals] use these numbers to satisfy the ends of our designs.

1. R(el|a)tional Design
Better Typography using Modular Scales.
Billy Whited
User Experience Craftsman

4. “A modular scale, like a musical scale, is a
prearranged set of harmonious
proportions.
Robert Bringhurst
The Elements of Typographic Style

5. “...a sequence of numbers that relate to one
another in a meaningful way.
Tim Brown
More Meaningful Typography

9. “Using a modular scale on the web means
choosing numbers from the scale for type
sizes, line height, line length, margins,
column widths, and more.
Tim Brown
More Meaningful Typography

10. 1. Consider your content.

11. 2. How much variety will you need?

13. 3. Be a Synesthete.
Major Second on C
Perfect Fourth on C

14. “I’ve found that a variety of things can serve
as an important number. The size at which
caption text looks best, for instance, or a
large number like the width of a piece of
media...ensures that something about
those elements resonates with the layout
as a whole.
Tim Brown
More Meaningful Typography