The distance between lines of text in a paragraph.

You can increase or decrease the distance between lines of text using the Line Spacing control in the format bar that appears when text or a text box is selected.

For even more fine control of line spacing, use the controls available in the Text inspector.

To quickly adjust line spacing:

Select the text you want to change and then select a value from the line spacing pop-up menu.

Selecting Show More opens the Text inspector.

To make finer line spacing adjustments:

1. Select the text you want to change.

2. Click Inspector in the toolbar, click the Text button, and then click Text.

3. Move the Line slider left to decrease spacing or right to increase it.

   To specify a precise line spacing value, type a point value in the Line field, or click the up or down arrow next to the field.

4. Choose a line spacing option from the Line spacing pop-up menu that appears when you click the text below the line field.

   • Standard line spacing (Single, Double, Multiple):  

     The space between lines is proportional to font size. Use this when the relative distance between ascenders (parts of letters that extend to the top of the line) and descenders (parts of letters that extend below the line) should remain fixed. Single sets line spacing to single-spaced, and Double sets it to double-spaced. Multiple lets you set line spacing values between single and double, or greater than double.

   • The distance from one line to the next will never be less than the value you set, but it may be larger for larger fonts to prevent overlapping text lines. Use this when the distance between lines should remain fixed, but overlap is not desired if the text gets large.

   • The distance between the baselines.

   • The value you set increases the space between the lines, instead of increasing the height of the lines. By contrast, double-spacing doubles the height of each line.

     Browsers by default will create a certain amount of space between lines to ensure that the text is easily readable. For example, for 12-point type, a browser will place about 1 point of vertical space between lines. The space between lines of text is called the leading, a term loosely inherited from print publishing.

     Line-height uses the standard CSS units of measurement, just like letter-spacing. You can designate text to have 26 points of leading like this:

     Line spac­ingis the ver­ti­cal dis­tance be­tween lines of text. Most writ­ers use ei­ther dou­ble-spaced lines or sin­gle-spaced lines—noth­ing in be­tween—be­cause those are the op­tions pre­sented by word processors.

     These habits are ob­so­lete type­writer habits. Orig­i­nally, a type­writer’s platen could only move the pa­per ver­ti­cally in units of a sin­gle line. There­fore, line-spac­ing choices were lim­ited to one, two, or more lines at a time. Sin­gle-spaced type­writ­ten text is dense and hard to read. But dou­ble-spac­ing is still looser than optimal.

     Most courts adopted their line-spac­ing stan­dards in the type­writer era. That’s why court rules usu­ally call for dou­ble-spaced lines. On a type­writer, each line is the height of the font, thus dou­ble spac­ing means twice the font size. So if you’re re­quired to use a 12-point font, dou­ble line spac­ing means 24 points.

     Cu­ri­ously, the so-called“dou­ble”line-spac­ing op­tion in your word proces­sor doesn’t pro­duce true dou­ble line spac­ing. Mi­crosoft Word’s“dou­ble”spac­ing, for in­stance, is about 15% looser, and it varies de­pend­ing on the font. To get ac­cu­rate spac­ing, you should al­ways set it your­self, exactly.

     For most text, the op­ti­mal line spac­ing is be­tween 120% and 145% of the point size. Most word proces­sors, as well as CSS, let you de­fine line spac­ing as a mul­ti­ple. Or you can do the math—mul­ti­ply your point size by the per­cent­age. (The text in this para­graph has line spac­ing of 110%. It’s too tight.)

     For most text, the optimal line spacing is between 120% and 145% of the point size. Most word processors, as well as CSS, let you define line spacing as a multiple. Or you can do the math—multiply your point size by the percentage. (The text in this paragraph has line spacing of 135%. It looks fine.)

     For most text, the op­ti­mal line spac­ing is be­tween 120% and 145% of the point size. Most word proces­sors, as well as CSS, let you de­fine line spac­ing as a mul­ti­ple. Or you can do the math—mul­ti­ply your point size by the per­cent­age. (The text in this para­graph has line spac­ing of 170%. It’s too loose.)

     Word proces­sors have a be­wil­der­ing num­ber of ways to set line spac­ing. Don’t be thrown off—it all comes back to the same thing.

     WordRight-click in the text and se­lectParagraphfrom the menu. Go to the menu un­derLine spacing.Exactlyis best—en­ter a fixed mea­sure­ment.Single,1.5 lines, andDoubleare equiv­a­lent to about 117%, 175%, and 233% line spac­ing, con­trary to what their names sug­gest. Don’t use these—they miss the tar­get zone of 120–145%.Multipleis also ac­cept­able—en­ter line spac­ing as a dec­i­mal. To get line spac­ing in the 120–145% range, use aMultiplevalue of 1.03–1.24. (Not 1.20–1.45—as noted above, Word uses pe­cu­liar line-spac­ing math.) Never useAt least, be­cause that gives Word per­mis­sion to ad­just your line spac­ing unpredictably.

     Word­Per­fectFormat→Line→HeightandSpacing. Line spac­ing in Word­Per­fect is theHeightvalue mul­ti­plied by theSpacingvalue. (The ben­e­fit of this com­pli­ca­tion may be ap­pre­ci­ated by Word­Per­fect fans. It is lost on me.) I rec­om­mend al­ways leav­ingSpacingat 1.0 and just set­ting your line spac­ing withHeight. Se­lect­ingHeightlets you choose fromFixedorAt Least. UseFixed—en­ter a mea­sure­ment in the 120–145% range. Don’t useAt Least.

     • Re­call that dif­fer­ent fonts set at the same point size may not ap­pear the same size on the page. (See point size for why.) A side ef­fect is that fonts that run small will need less line spac­ing, and vice versa.

     • Line spac­ing af­fects the length of a doc­u­ment more than point size. If you need to fit a doc­u­ment onto a cer­tain num­ber of pages, try ad­just­ing the line spac­ing first.

     • Some law­yers have sug­gested to me that courts should adopt Mi­crosoft Word’s in­ter­pre­ta­tion of line spac­ing as the stan­dard. I dis­agree, for a sim­ple but se­ri­ous rea­son. Ac­cess to the courts is a fun­da­men­tal right. In­ter­pret­ing line spac­ing ac­cord­ing to the quid­di­ties of a com­mer­cial soft­ware pro­gram would im­ply that par­ties have to buy a li­cense to that pro­gram to com­ply with the rules and thereby gain ac­cess to the courts. But dou­ble line spac­ing in its tra­di­tional sense can be im­ple­mented with any type­set­ting program.