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Text stress
Does this page survive WCAG text spacing, and right-to-left?
WCAG 1.4.12 asks a page to survive four overrides - line height 1.5, letter spacing 0.12em, word spacing 0.16em, two ems after a paragraph - and most pages are never tried with them. This puts them on the page you are looking at, measures every box that hides overflow before and after, and lists only the ones that newly clip, so a headline cropped on purpose is not blamed on the spacing.
Reach it Press ⌘ + K on any tab and type text stress. Ctrl + K on Windows and Linux
in the panel · 24-hour trial, then Pro
What this actually is
Before an accessibility review, after a redesign that tightened a card or a button, and before a site gets an Arabic or Hebrew translation - the right-to-left switch shows a layout built on left and right in one press.
Asked about this tool
Why only boxes that newly clip?
Because plenty of pages crop text on purpose - a one-line teaser, a truncated table cell. Measuring before and after the change means the list is what the spacing broke, not every ellipsis the design already had.
Does it catch text that overlaps something else?
No. Only a box that hides its overflow can be caught cutting text off. Text that spills across a neighbour is a different failure, and it is left to your eyes rather than guessed at.
What does the right-to-left switch actually change?
It sets dir=rtl on the root element. Flow and logical properties flip with it; anything positioned with a hard left or right stays where it was, which is exactly what it is there to show.
What are the four values, and which WCAG level is this?
Success Criterion 1.4.12 Text Spacing, Level AA, in the W3C text at w3.org/TR/WCAG22/#text-spacing. A page has to keep all its content and function when a reader sets line height to 1.5 times the font size, letter spacing to 0.12 times, word spacing to 0.16 times and the space after paragraphs to 2 times. It does not ask the page to use those values itself.
Does it cost anything?
Every tool is open for 24 hours from install, and Text stress is among them. After that the panel stays locked until the browser has Pro, monthly or as one Lifetime payment. Starting the trial asks for no account.
Does it work on localhost, staging or a page behind a login?
Yes. It runs on the tab you have open, on your press, so it measures the page as you see it - signed in, on a dev server, or on a staging host. Nothing is fetched from outside the tab.
Which browsers does it run in?
Chrome, Edge and other Chromium browsers, and Firefox. It is the same panel on both.
Is anything saved on the site?
No. Both changes are edits to the page in this tab, taken off when you leave the tool, and a reload puts everything back.
how to use text stress
- Open Text stress on the page you want to check.
- Switch on Text spacing to apply the four WCAG 1.4.12 values to the live page.
- Read the clipped list: every box that cuts its text off now and did not before.
- Try Right to left too, then leave the tool and the page is put back.
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