In another video in this course on laying out and using fonts, we covered text alignment, which concerns the left and right margins of texts. This video will cover the top and bottom alignment of text. We usually set margins to determine line width, but what about the line height of blocks of text? What are some considerations when we are working with the spacing between the lines of text? In most word processing software, there are basically a few options we can choose when it comes to spacing between lines. We tend to use single-spaced texts for its readability, and double-space texts for proofreading purposes but when it comes to graphic design, there are even more matters to consider. In the graphic design profession, line spacing is called Leading, and when it comes to line spacing in graphic design, we have more choices than just single or double spacing our text. Leading Is the line space between baselines. These examples show how leading can range from narrow to large, depending on the intention of the design project. Therefore, leading your lines becomes an important design issue. But let's stop here for a minute to make a point and share a bit of history. Leading is pronounced "ledding" and not leading because it is in reference to the strips of lead use to separate lines of metal type from the days of mechanical typesetting. It is leading that we need to learn, as in lead, the metal. This example shows metal type with long pieces of metal between the letter forms. It is this historic use of these lead pieces that has been translated in design programs such as InDesign. But even if we change the leading of a block of words, the legibility of a typeface is a product of its design, and relate to the ability to distinguish from one letter form to another when reading. Factors contributing to a typeface legibility include; cap height from the baseline, ascenders and descenders, and X height. Remember, this term refers to the height of the lowercase x in proportion to the baseline, and mid-line. The taller the X height, often the more legible the typeface tends to be. But you can see in this example that the ascenders and descenders also need to be considered when working with leading. So they do not blend together, such as in the P in helicopter, and the H in thrust. Here are a few more examples of how ascenders and descenders can cause issues with the readability of some type faces. By deferring the leading of the lines in these examples, we can see the text becomes easier to read. But leading can go too far as in the bottom two examples. The default setting for leading in most layout and imaging software is a 120 percent of the type size. Therefore, a common guidelines to follow when determining the leading in a block or paragraph of text is to start by adding one or two points to the leading based of the size of type. So if the type size is 12, as in this example, start with 14 or 15 point leading to determine what looks best. Designers play with line spacing in order to create distinctive typographical elements. Reducing the standard distance or using tight leading creates a denser typographic look. But it risks collision between the ascenders and descenders. Expanding the line spacing by using default or normal leading creates a lighter more open text block. In these examples, it depends on the audience and design piece as to whether the middle or the lower option is better. But if you have lots of text in a project, the middle option might work best. We can compare these examples of the same text in the same font size, and see that expanding the leading between lines creates a lighter more open text block. It also makes the words more readable if you stick with the guideline of leading being two or three points more than text size. But for instance, if your audience is comprised of a varied age range, you might want to go with the far right option that offers looser leading to help with readability, keeping people's age and varied sight abilities in mind. We also need to keep in mind that increasing leading takes up more space. In these examples, the red lines are the same height. But as we increase leading, the text takes up more space. However, is not only leading that can increase how much space a block of text can take up. All of these examples use little leading guideline of 120 percent more than text size. But as the text size and leading increase, so does the expanse of leading or amount of space the text block takes up. So remember, leading pertained to line spacing or the space between baselines of texts. Its purpose is to allow the designer to alter the density of blocks of texts by purposely determining line spacing based on other graphic considerations. Therefore, leading your lines is just one more element to consider in any design project.
