Ragtooth

A sawtooth rag, on the web. Shapes text into alternating long/short lines — the kind of typographic rhythm that reads as design, not accident.

The rag is the uneven right edge of unjustified text. Left to the browser it falls where it falls. Ragtooth measures each natural line and reshapes that edge into a deliberate, repeating zig-zag — short line, full line, short line — so the paragraph looks composed instead of accidental.

ragtooth.com · npm · GitHub

TypeScript · Zero dependencies · ~3.3 kB min+gzip · React + Vanilla JS

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Install

npm install @liiift-studio/ragtooth

React

Component

import { RagText } from '@liiift-studio/ragtooth'

<RagText sawDepth={120} sawPeriod={2}>
  Your paragraph text here...
</RagText>

RagText renders a <p> by default and forwards every standard HTML attribute, so className, style, id, aria-*, and data-* pass straight through — no wrapper element needed:

<RagText as="h2" className="lede" sawDepth={40}>
  A heading with a shaped rag
</RagText>

Prop	Type	Default	Description
as	ElementType	"p"	The element to render.
children	ReactNode	—	The text to shape. String children are re-measured automatically when they change — no key prop required. For JSX children that change, pass a key.
(all RagOptions)	—	—	sawDepth, sawPeriod, sawPhase, sawAlign, maxTracking, resize — see Options.
(any HTML attribute)	—	—	className, style, id, aria-*, data-*, etc. are forwarded to the rendered element.

Hook

import { useRag } from '@liiift-studio/ragtooth'

const { ref } = useRag({ sawDepth: 120, sawPeriod: 2 })

<p ref={ref}>Your paragraph text here...</p>

useRag returns { ref } — destructure it and attach ref to any block element. Re-runs on resize automatically.

Vanilla JS

import { applyRag, removeRag } from '@liiift-studio/ragtooth'

const el = document.querySelector('p')
const originalHTML = el.innerHTML

// Apply the rag
applyRag(el, originalHTML, { sawDepth: 120, sawPeriod: 2 })

// Remove it (restores original HTML)
removeRag(el, originalHTML)

Wait for fonts before measuring:

const originalHTML = el.innerHTML
await document.fonts.ready
applyRag(el, originalHTML, { sawDepth: 120 })

Capture originalHTML before any mutation so the fonts.ready call receives clean HTML, not the previously-instrumented markup.

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How it works

Ragtooth measures each line's natural width by wrapping every word in a span, reading their offsetWidth, and grouping them into lines. It then applies max-width and letter-spacing to each line element to produce the sawtooth rhythm:

• Long lines — stay at full container width
• Short lines — constrained to containerWidth − sawDepth, with letter-spacing added to fill that reduced width

The algorithm never changes how text flows. It reads the browser's natural line breaks, then constrains them. ResizeObserver re-runs on any container width change.

Calling applyRag again is safe — it resets to the supplied originalHTML before re-measuring, so repeated calls (e.g. on resize) never compound.

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Accessibility

Ragtooth shapes the visual edge of a paragraph; the reading order, words, and text content are unchanged. A few things worth knowing because the effect works by mutating the DOM:

• Word wrapping. Each word is wrapped in an inline <span> to measure it. Inline spans don't introduce new word boundaries, so screen readers still announce the paragraph as continuous text.
• Letter-spacing. Short lines are filled with letter-spacing up to maxTracking. Keep maxTracking modest (the 0.7 default is conservative) so spacing stays within comfortable reading limits — this respects WCAG 1.4.12 Text Spacing, which expects text to remain readable when users override spacing.
• Reset for export. getCleanHTML(el) returns the markup with every injected span removed — use it before serialising, copying, or persisting content so you store clean HTML, not instrumented markup.
• Best on body copy. Like all rag shaping, it reads best on left-aligned, unjustified prose. It is decorative: if letter-spacing is set very high it can hurt legibility, so tune sawDepth/maxTracking to taste.

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Compatibility

• Browsers — any evergreen browser. Relies on ResizeObserver and document.fonts.ready, both supported in Chrome/Edge 64+, Firefox 69+, and Safari 11.1+.
• SSR — the core guards on typeof window and no-ops on the server; the React entry points need a browser (see Next.js).
• React — optional peer dependency, react/react-dom >=17. The vanilla API has no peer deps at all.
• Size — ~3.3 kB min+gzip, zero runtime dependencies.

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Options

Recommended starting point: sawDepth: 120, sawPeriod: 2 for body copy at a comfortable measure (~60–75 characters), then tune sawDepth up for a more dramatic zig-zag or down for a subtler one. Leave the rest at their defaults to begin with.

Option	Type	Default	Description
sawDepth	RagValue	80	How far short lines are pulled in from full width. Higher = more pronounced sawtooth.
sawPeriod	number	2	Lines per saw cycle. 2 = alternating long/short. 3 = two long, one short. 4 = three long, one short.
sawPhase	number	sawPeriod	Which line in each cycle is shortened (1-indexed). Default = last line.
sawAlign	'top' | 'bottom'	'top'	Whether the cycle is anchored from the top or bottom of the block. 'bottom' guarantees the last lines are full-width.
maxTracking	RagValue	0.7	Maximum letter-spacing any line can receive. Prevents grotesque stretching on very short lines.
resize	boolean	true	Whether to re-run when the container resizes. Set to false for static contexts.

RagValue

All size options (sawDepth, maxTracking) accept a RagValue — a number or a CSS-like string:

Input	Resolves to
80	80px
"80px"	80px
"20%"	20% of container width
"2em"	2× the element's computed font-size
"1rem"	1× the root font-size
"5ch"	5× the width of the "0" glyph

sawAlign examples

// Guarantee the paragraph ends with two full-width lines
applyRag(el, el.innerHTML, {
  sawDepth: 100,
  sawPeriod: 3,
  sawAlign: 'bottom',
})
// Period of 3 from the bottom: lines count as [short, full, full] per group
// → the penultimate line is always full

sawPhase examples

// sawPeriod: 3, sawPhase: 2
// → pattern per 3-line group: [full, SHORT, full]
applyRag(el, el.innerHTML, { sawPeriod: 3, sawPhase: 2 })

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TypeScript

import { applyRag, removeRag, getCleanHTML } from '@liiift-studio/ragtooth'
import type { RagOptions, RagValue } from '@liiift-studio/ragtooth'

const options: RagOptions = {
  sawDepth: '15%',
  sawPeriod: 3,
  sawAlign: 'bottom',
  maxTracking: '0.05em',
}

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API reference

Export	Description
applyRag(el, originalHTML, options?)	Applies the sawtooth rag to el.
removeRag(el, originalHTML)	Restores el to its original HTML.
getCleanHTML(el)	Returns the element's current HTML with all injected spans removed.
useRag(options?)	React hook — returns { ref }. Attach ref to any block element. Measures and re-runs on resize.
RagText	React component wrapper around useRag.
RagOptions	TypeScript interface for all options.
RagValue	Type for size options (number | string).
RAG_CLASSES	Object of CSS class names injected by the algorithm (rag-word, rag-line, etc.).

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Next.js

RagText and useRag require a browser environment. Add "use client" to any component that uses them:

"use client"
import { RagText } from '@liiift-studio/ragtooth'

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Development

git clone https://github.com/Liiift-Studio/Ragtooth.git
cd Ragtooth
npm install

npm run build      # bundle to dist/ (Vite, ESM + CJS + .d.ts)
npm test           # run the unit tests (Vitest, happy-dom)
npm run typecheck  # tsc --noEmit
npm run capture    # regenerate the README hero image (assets/hero.png)

The source is organised the same way as the rest of the type-tools suite:

• src/core/ — the framework-agnostic algorithm (adjust.ts), options resolver (resolve.ts), and shared types. No React imports.
• src/react/ — the useRag hook and RagText component.
• src/__tests__/ — Vitest unit tests for the core, resolver, types, and React layers.

Issues and PRs are welcome at github.com/Liiift-Studio/Ragtooth.

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Dev notes

next in root devDependencies

package.json at the repo root lists next as a devDependency. This is a Vercel detection workaround — not a real dependency of the npm package. Vercel's build system inspects the root package.json to detect the framework; without next present it falls back to a static build and skips the Next.js pipeline, breaking the /site subdirectory deploy.

The package itself has zero runtime dependencies. Do not remove this entry.