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kat.hayes

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Oct 10, 2011
1,404
48
I'm looking at a flyer that has a bunch of body text and the lines of text seem too close together. I would adjust the leading between the lines to add space. However, from a design point-of-view I am not sure what the name of the design principle that this relates to. Does fixing leading between lines that are too close together correct spacing, proximity, what would you call it?

Thanks.
 

spacedcadet

macrumors regular
Mar 5, 2009
202
53
Leading

Technically, adjusting the leading of a body of text will affect the "colour". Typeface, weight (thin, bold etc.), leading and tracking all affect this.

typographic color
The apparent blackness of a block of text. Color is a function of the relative thickness of the strokes that make up the characters in a font, as well as the width, point size, and leading used for setting the text block
 

Macman45

macrumors G5
Jul 29, 2011
13,197
135
Somewhere Back In The Long Ago
Kind of depends on what you are using too....If my rusty old memory serves me correctly, a simple way of doing this without playing too much with the fonts etc is to change the line spacing....I'ts a common command available from the Word toolbar...Pages also has the option as do most WP and DTP packages.
 

lucidmedia

macrumors 6502a
Oct 13, 2008
702
37
Wellington, New Zealand
The vertical distance between lines is traditionally called leading, and it is measured from baseline to baseline. The term comes from the blank strips of lead that you use to separate two lines of type on a letterpress. By adding "lead" to your lines you are simply adjusting the leading of the paragraph to something you find more pleasing. The less technical term that is often applied to this measurement is line spacing. CSS uses the term line spacing and it annoys me to no end.

Spacecadet is correct in that typographers holistically describe the spacing of a paragraph as color. This is not a measurable property however.
 

springerj

macrumors member
Jan 29, 2004
78
10
Portland, OR
CSS uses the term line spacing and it annoys me to no end.

I have never understood why the developers of CSS acted like they were inventing something new, when thousands of people had been doing page layout for years using well-established terminology. There's still no such thing as "leading", or simple ways to set space-after or keep-together in css.
 

spacedcadet

macrumors regular
Mar 5, 2009
202
53
Leading

You can tell non-design background people as they often pronounce it "leeding" rather than" ledding". :)
 

beowulf70

macrumors regular
Oct 20, 2010
246
22
London
I'm looking at a flyer that has a bunch of body text and the lines of text seem too close together. I would adjust the leading between the lines to add space. However, from a design point-of-view I am not sure what the name of the design principle that this relates to. Does fixing leading between lines that are too close together correct spacing, proximity, what would you call it?

Thanks.

Unfortunately, the terminology (or design principle as you called it) can depend on the software you are working in.

Traditionally the space between lines of text is called Leading. But some programs such as Word use the term Line Spacing. (nasty)

So, if you want to change the space between the lines of text, then yes you can, and are increasing or decreasing the leading. Simple as that.
Either way, if it seems too close together, trust your eyes and increase it. ;)
 
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