7/30/2019 Typographic Circle Guides Leading or Line Spacing

1/1

Basic typographic principles:A guide by The Typographic Circle

typocircle.com/learn

Leading (or line spacing)

Leading, or line spacing, reers to the space aboveand below lines o text. Its name is derived romwhen type was set by hand by type-setters, whomanually added strips o lead to increase ordecrease the spaces between text.

Leading is measured rom baseline to baseline anduses the same points scale that is used to measuretype. Text is oten reerred to as being 9/11pt or10/12pt when being specifed by typographersand designers.

As with tracking (see kerning & tracking), leadinggreatly aects the legibility o text. Set yourleading too small and your text will become aclumsy, solid block. Set it too large and lines otext eel disjointed and difcult to read.

It really comes down to personal preerence andwhat you are trying to achieve. Tighter leading canbe useul or smaller text that has to ft within asmall area, like terms & conditions, whereas largerleading can oten add a premium eel to an invite.

Getting the balance right or the typeace and typesize that you are using is the key to good leading.

This will vary depending on what typeace you areusing, and o course the context in which you aredesigning, but a good rule o thumb or long-ormtext is to set your leading at least 2 or 4 pointsmore than your type's point size or print. Readablelong-orm text on screen generally requires a biggerdierence between your type and leading sizes around 5 to 7 points (or pixels).

A good tip or assessing whether your leading andpoint sizes are correct, particularly when designingor print, is to create a test sheet at the early stageso your design. By testing various combinationso type and leading size next to each other (andpossibly dierent typeaces) you get to see whicheel the most comortable to read.

As well as determining your body copy size, it'llhelp you to answer other questions like the size othe headers compared to the text and how manycolumns your grid should have. It's a very quick way

to rule out combinations that don't work and willalways save you time in the long run.

Easier to read

The Shiningis a 1980 psychological horror

flm produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick,

co-written with novelist Diane Johnson,

and starringJack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall,

Scatman Crothers, and Danny Lloyd. The

flm is based on the Stephen King novel The

Shining. A writer, Jack Torrance, takes a job

as an o-season caretaker at an isolated hotel.

His young son possesses psychic abilities and

is able to see things rom the past and uture,

such as the ghosts who inhabit the hotel. Soon

ater settling in, the amily is trapped in the

Harder to readThe Shiningis a 1980 psychological horror

flm produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick,co-written with novelist Diane Johnson,and starringJack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall,Scatman Crothers, and Danny Lloyd.

The Shiningis a 1980 psychological horror

flm produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick,

co-written with novelist Diane Johnson,

and starringJack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall,

Scatman Crothers, and Danny Lloyd.

10/12ptThis number reers tothe size that your typeis set at.

This number reers tothe size that your leadingor line spacing is set at.

You may also see leading sizes

referred to as 0, +2 or +3. This is

simply another way of denoting

the difference between the type

size and the leading size, i.e

10/12pt could also be referred to

as +2 leading.

Typeace = Futura Bold