Line lead

Line lead (1) and line height result in line spacing (2)

Text example without and with leading

Leading , even penetration , Interlinea or English leading [ lɛdɪŋ ] (from English lead [ lɛd ], German , Reglette ' ), referred to in printing industry and typography the vertical line space of characters in a particular set . If the leading is between the lines, one also speaks of a leading sentence , without this spacing it is called a compressed sentence or a compressed text.

In lead type , the reglettes were those narrow pieces of lead ( dummy material ) with which the spaces between the lines were created. The Regletten could be shot as one part between the letters . Lead marked the distance from the lower edge of the lead letter to the upper edge of the lead letter of the line below.

Leading is often confused with line spacing , but it's not the same because line spacing is measured from baseline to baseline.

Layout, typesetting and word processing programs usually specify a leading of 20% of the font size by default. Particularly in the running text , this specification is more aesthetic and more suitable than a compressed sentence , but it can only be regarded as optimal in a few cases. Various factors such as the line length, the font size or the x-height of the font have an effect on the leading if optimal legibility is to be guaranteed. According to the typographer Jan Tschichold , a leading of 2 to 6 points is required for this. A leading from 12 points is "mostly decorative". The German Institute for Standardization describes the line spacing according to DIN 1450 as a nominal size that depends on the type of text and recommends a leading of around 20% of the font size for reading texts of up to 80 characters per line.

See also

• Letter spacing , in the digital context Spacing called for the horizontal pitch
• Locking rate

Web link

• Wolfgang Beinert : Line spacing and leading . In: Typolexikon.de. The Lexicon of Western European Typography. Retrieved September 18, 2012

Individual evidence

1. ↑ lead, n . ¹ . In: OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2018, accessed on August 10, 2018 (English): “ 8. Printing . A thin strip of type-metal or brass, less than type-high, of varying thickness and length, used in type-composition to separate lines; before 1800 known as space-line . " 
2. ↑ Jan Tschichold: Pleasing printed matter through good typography: A primer for everyone. Augsburg: MaroVerlag, 2001, p. 92
3. ↑ DIN 1450, writings; Legibility (April 2013). German institute for standardization. Berlin: Beuth.