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You may find that the leading you choose may best become a unit for
determining other spacing needs.
Let's say you have text with a 12-point leading. You apply a
twelve-point interparagraph spacing, and your heads plus the spaces
they have before or after wind up in 12-point multiples.
As you do your layout, with this method you wind up with lines that in
parallel columns or facing pages are completely parallel with the same
baselines. This tends to give a very uniform appearance.
Word processors typically default to a leading that is a multiple of
the font size--and that is far too crude to result in truly superior
results. Much depends upon such things as the x-height of the font
used and the column width to determine what leading works best.
In a reasonably narrow column, too loose and the paragraphs appear
"lost in space" as it were, while more leading is necessary for very
wide columns to make it easier for the eye to follow.
You might try a brief experiment. Create two paragraphs with the same
text content and column width but in different fonts. Try one with a
large x-height--say Bookman or Century Schoolbook--and another with a
relatively small x-height--perhaps Times. Note that the visual effect
is much different from each having the same nominal point size, and
the leading is likewise less pleasing from one to the other based only
on the nominal point size.
I just created such a paragraph from something I had on file. I used
Bookman and Times--and with both at 12 point they appeared much
different. Bookman looked much larger and heavier...but the leading
was immediately much too tight.
By the time I added two points of leading and reduced the Bookman font
two points, the results appeared much less obvious--leading was
functionally the same as the Times part, and the visual impact was
quite similar as well.
I did this in OpenOffice, but it should work in nearly any modern word
processor. However, the strength of InDesign is it leads you easily
manipulate those kinds of typographic adjustments to get precisely the
effect you seek.
David
You might create various leadings to compare the look, then to repeat
the exercise at different column widths.
On 9/8/05, Claire Conant <Claire -dot- Conant -at- digeo -dot- com> wrote:
>
> I use Word 2003. For body text I set the "before paragraph" spacing at 6
> pt, and "after" at 4 pt, with a line spacing of 12 pt. (font is 11pt).
> This allows for a little more white space between lines.
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