line-height

Whereas Font Properties control the display options of the type of your document, Text Properties control the options pertaining to the layout and appearance of the paragraphs in which the text is presented. Some text properties include text capitalization and minor effects such as blinking and underlined sections of text. line-height This property is used to set the line spacing. Single or double spaced, for example. The values for this property are inherited not only from parent to child, but from child to child as well. That is, a setting of 2 (double spaced) in one instance and a setting of 2 (double spaced) in the next instance will result in the second instance having a line spacing of four; the value assigned to the second instance was multiplied by the inherited value of the first. line height values normal height This value sets the spacing back to the vlaue specified by the font or the value specified by the parent container, since inheritance plays a large factor in line spacing. number This value sets the space between the baselines (bottoms of) the lines of text. It is a misconception that the line spacing is measured from the bottom of the upper line to the top of the lower line. This value is symbiotic with the value of the text size. That is, specifying a line height of 1.5 with a text size of 10 points will result in a total line height of 15 points. length This sets the height of the line using one of the standard measurement options. Each measurement option has its own abbreviation, as follows: • mm millimeters. • cm centimeters. • in inches. • pt points, which is a way of measuring the font size. One point is 1/72 (one seventy-second) of an inch. • pc picas, which is yet another way of measuring font size. One pica is equal to 12 points. • px pixels, which is one screen element. The display you're looking at is comprised of thousands of individual dots, each of which can change in color and luminosity to achieve the desired image. Each of these dots is referred to as a pixel. • ex x-height settings, which is the height of the font's lower case letter 'x'. • em em setting, which is the normal height of the font. Millimeters, centimeters, inches, points, and picas are considered to be absolute lengths because you're specifying the exact size of the type. Relative units such as em and ex are interpreted as references to the parent font size. percentage This value sets the line spacing as a percentage of the current size of the font. Since its value is proportional to that of the font size, its value is affected by inheritance. It should be noted that a negative line-height value may cause text to overlap and become unintelligible. It should also be noted that it is a good convention to specify a font-size with the line-height. syntax {line-height: 2; font-size: 12} EXAMPLES: P {line-height: 2em; font-size: 10pt} This example will set the line height to 20 points, which is twice the sixe of the font, the font size being 10 points.