Leading

: This article deals with the typographical meaning of "leading". For the management meaning, see leadership.

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In typography, leading (IPA , rhymes with heading) refers to the amount of added space between lines of type. When type was set by hand for printing presses, printers placed slugs—strips of lead of various thicknesses—between lines of type to add space.

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Leading is commonly confused with line height, which refers to the full height of a line of type (the size of the tallest letter in a font of type, plus the thickness of the leading). Text with no leading is set solid. In this case, the line height is equal to the type size.

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It is generally considered that text set solid appears a little cramped, with ascenders touching descenders from the previous line. A leading of 20% of the font height (or a line height of 1.2h) is quite common for "normal" text; most Web browsers have a default line height of 1.2h. Desktop publishing packages tend to vary between 10–30% leading.

Typography: Typography (from the Greek words typos = form and grapho = write) is the art and technique of selecting and arranging type styles, point sizes, line lengths, line leading, character spacing, and word spacing for typeset applications. These applications can be physical or digital. The two primary fun...

IPA: REDIRECT International Phonetic Alphabet...

Printing press: The printing press is a mechanical device for printing multiple copies of a text on rectangular sheets of paper. It was first invented in China in 1041. It was reinvented in the West by a German goldsmith and eventual printer, Johann Gutenberg in the 1450s. Apart from Gutenberg, the Dutch Laurens Ja...

Leading related Images and Photos (experimental)

Leading Edge	Leading Ladies Collection, The (DVD) (5-Pack)	Leading Ladies Collection, The Vol. 2 (DVD) (5-Pack)	Leading Horses in Desert
Boardwalk Leading to Shore	Jeb Stuart Leading Cavalry	Leading Ladies 2012 Mini Wall Calendar	Liberty Leading the People
Street Leading to El Azhar Grand Cairo Pub. 1846	Road Leading Up to the Tennessee Copper Co. Mine	Liberty Leading the People 1830	Kohlmarkt Leading to St. Michael's Dome Vienna Austria