What are kerning and leading?
Leading addresses the vertical gaps between lines of text – often crucial in the creation of magazine articles, blog pages, and other pieces of written work. Kerning deals with the space between two characters or letters.
What is the difference between kerning and leading and tracking?
As mentioned above, they both address the space in between letters on a page, screen, or in a design. Kerning looks at the adjustments of spaces between a pair of letters, while tracking examines the spacing between larger groups of letters and blocks of text.
What is an leading in typography?
Leading is the space between multiple lines of type, which can be as few as two lines of type to, well, as many lines as needed. Leading is measured from baseline (the imaginary line upon which a line of text rests) to baseline.
What is leading in spacing?
Line spacing, or “leading”, is the amount of space between the baselines of each line of text. Correct leading is important because it gives multiple lines of text optimum legibility.
Why is leading called leading?
The word ‘leading’ originates from the strips of lead hand-typesetters used to use to space out lines of text evenly. The word leading has stuck, but essentially it’s a typographer’s term for line spacing.
What does 12pt leading mean?
The larger the font size, the lower is the leading. A good rule is to set the leading for 2-5pt more than the font size, depending on the font type. So if the font is 12pt, the lead should be from 14pt to 17 pt.
What is the meaning of word kerning?
In typography, kerning is the process of adjusting the spacing between characters in a proportional font, usually to achieve a visually pleasing result. Kerning adjusts the space between individual letterforms, while tracking (letter-spacing) adjusts spacing uniformly over a range of characters.
How is leading measured in typography?
Leading. Leading describes the amount of space between lines of text. You can measure leading by obtaining the distance between two baselines. Leading is called line-height in CSS.
What is the difference between kerning and tracking in typography?
Tracking is sometimes confused for kerning, but it’s actually quite different. Where kerning involves the spacing between two letters, tracking involves the spacing throughout the entire word.
Why is leading important in typography?
Loose, but not too loose, leading can be easy to read and follow. It can make smaller text appear somewhat larger than it is and help balance extremely long lines of text.
How do you determine the leading font?
Leading. Leading describes the amount of space between lines of text. You can measure leading by obtaining the distance between two baselines.
What does 2 point leading between lines mean?
Leading is the space between lines of text. Historically, typeset printers placed strips of lead between the lines of type to achieve the desired spacing. Today, the only court that has precise “leading” rules is the United States Supreme Court, which requires 2-point or more leading between lines.
How do you decide leading?
As a rule of thumb this should be between 1–3 points more than the size of body text. If working with a wide column, increase the leading to improve readability, likewise if your type reverses out of a solid color.
What are the three levels of typographic hierarchy?
Three levels of typographic hierarchy There are three separate sections that create a visual hierarchy of text: The headline, subheading and body. Having these distinct sections makes the design visually stimulating and easy to navigate, allowing readers to quickly scan for information.
How do I choose a font hierarchy?
Keeping typefaces approximately the same size, but making the more important heading bold, while making the less important one italic creates definite visual hierarchy. The same can be done with color. A subheading in an accent color will stand out more than a subheading that’s the same color as the body text.