What Is Leading in Typography?

Skilled graphic designers make typography look so easy—after all, aren’t they just putting words on the screen?

In reality, typography requires many key considerations and decisions. These often go unnoticed by the average person, but they have a massive impact on how the final product looks and feels.

One of these considerations is leading. In simple terms, leading is the spacing between lines in a block of text, but it’s so much more than that. Choosing the correct leading for your design or publication requires careful thought and attention to detail, and it can make all the difference.

Origin and History of the Term "Leading"

In the era of the printing press, compositors had to manually assemble metal letters into text. In order to leave a consistent amount of space between lines, they separated them with strips of lead. This became known as “leading”. Although we now have printers, computers and programs like Adobe InDesign, the terminology and principles of typography remain largely the same. 

The Importance of Leading in Design

Adjusting the leading is one of the most effective ways to quickly improve the look of your text. 

When lines are crammed together, the text can be difficult to read and, in some cases, even cause eye strain and fatigue for the reader. Increasing the leading gives text more breathing room, improving readability and generally making it more visually appealing. 

On the other hand, increasing leading also increases the amount of space that the text takes up on the page. If text is just one of the many elements of your design, you may need to consider how much space you can allocate for it. For example, you may need to leave room for photos, illustrations or intentional negative space. Purposefully decreasing leading can also be an interesting visual effect, especially with headings and logotypes. 

Determining the right leading means finding a balance between the text’s readability, visual appeal and its function in the design. There is no one-size-fits-all solution—you’ll need to play around with it on a case-by-case basis to find the perfect leading every time.

How Leading is Measured

While leading does refer to the amount of space between lines, it’s not actually measured from the bottom of one line to the top of the next. Rather, it’s the space between two baselines.

A baseline is the invisible line that text sits on. Most letters rest fully on it, while lowercase letters y, g, p, j and q have a descender that hangs underneath it. 

Leading is measured using the same units as type size, so it’s helpful to set it using the point size of your font as a reference. Graphic designers use the following general terms to describe the relationship between leading and font size:

• Positive leading is larger than the font size
• Normal leading is equal to the font size
• Negative leading is smaller than the font size

How to Set Leading in Adobe InDesign

Click on a textbox to bring up its Properties panel. The current leading size can be found to the right of the font size under the Character section. If you don’t see the Character section, you can bring it up separately by going to Type > Character. 

If you’d like to change the leading of one particular line, you can highlight it. This allows you to increase or decrease the space directly above it. If you don’t highlight anything, the changes you make will be applied to the entire textbox. 

To set a new leading size, use the up and down arrows, highlight the current size and type in a new value or open up the drop-down menu and select a preset size. 

Notice that at the top of the drop-down menu, there is an option called Auto. When this is selected, the leading size is automatically set to 120% of the font size. As you change the font size, the leading will change with it. When leading is set to Auto, the value it’s currently set to appears in parentheses. 

120% of the font size is a great starting point. For example, if your font size is 20 points, then your leading would be 24. You can increase the leading from there, but it’s typically not recommended to go any lower to preserve readability unless it’s a stylistic choice or you absolutely have to fit a specific amount of text on the same page. 

What to Consider When Determining the Perfect Leading Size

The most important function of leading is to improve readability. But there are other factors affecting readability, too: typeface and color. When choosing a leading size, these need to be taken into account. 

Typeface

Consider the typeface you’ve chosen for your text: 

1. What is its x-height (the height of the letter x and most other lowercase letters)? A font with tall letters needs more breathing room (as does text written in all capital letters). 
2. Ascenders and descenders are the parts of letters that extend beyond the x-height. How far out do they reach? Do they have any special flourishes? Some typefaces need a larger leading to accommodate these. 
3. How legible is the typeface? In general, if a typeface is already a bit difficult to read, it can be helpful to set a larger leading to make up for it. 

Take a look at the examples below. Both passages are typed in 20 pt font with a 24 pt leading. However, the one on the left uses a typeface with a larger x-height and looks quite squished. Plus, this typeface is on the decorative side and can be difficult to read when used in a large block of text. Increasing this leading to at least 28 points would look much better! 

Color 

The color of the text and the background both play a role in readability. As a general rule, light text on a dark background is more difficult to read than dark text on a light background. To make up for this, use a larger leading size—it will help the text stand out better and make it more reader-friendly. 

Strengthen Your Typography Skills

Every block of text you ever work on will require you to pause and think about how you can adjust the leading to make it look better and easier to read. In some cases, it may even be helpful to lay out a few different options side by side so you can choose the best one. 

This may seem tedious, but as you get better and better at typography and graphic design, you’ll be able to make these decisions much quicker. More importantly, you’ll appreciate the flexibility that leading provides and use it to your advantage to create unique, impactful and memorable designs. 
Leading is just one of the many aspects of typography you’ll need to know if you want to do any work in graphic design or publishing. If you haven’t already, be sure to take a class on typography and familiarize yourself with its fundamental principles—these will be the building blocks that guide you through any creative project involving text.

Written By

Sayana Lam

Sayana is a musician, writer and graphic designer based in Toronto, Canada.

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