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Line Height And Spacing Calculator

Work out line height and spacing instantly with clear inputs, formula shown and shareable results.

About Line Height And Spacing Calculator

Line height is the font size times the ratio, and the comfortable column width is the character target times roughly half the font size, since an average character is about half an em wide. Long lines need more leading, which is why the classic 45 to 75 character measure and a 1.5 ratio are paired rather than chosen independently.

Formulas

Line height

line height = font size x ratio

Column width

width = characters per line x font size x 0.5

Worked example

With the default values below, Line Height And Spacing Calculator returns Line height of 24.00. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

Font sizeminimum 1 px
16 px
Line height ratioaccepts 0.5–3
1.5
Target characters per lineaccepts 10–200
70

Results

Line height
24.00 px
Text column width for that measure
560.0 px
Suggested paragraph spacing
24.00 px
Lines in a 900 px tall viewport
37.5

Step by step

  1. 1Values used
  2. 2Line height
  3. 3Column width
  4. 4Line height= 24.00 px
  5. 5Text column width for that measure= 560.0 px
  6. 6Suggested paragraph spacing= 24.00 px
  7. 7Lines in a 900 px tall viewport= 37.5

Assumptions and limits

  • The result is derived only from the 3 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
  • In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax, fees or charges or compounding frequency into account.
  • Figures are rounded for display to 2 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.

How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is the Line Height And Spacing figure worked out?

line height = font size x ratio. Line height is the font size times the ratio, and the comfortable column width is the character target times roughly half the font size, since an average character is about half an em wide.

Why does this matter?

Long lines need more leading, which is why the classic 45 to 75 character measure and a 1.5 ratio are paired rather than chosen independently.

What do I need to enter?

Enter font size, line height ratio, target characters per line. The defaults shown are a realistic worked example — swap in your own figures to get a result you can use.

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Line Height And Spacing Calculator – Calculate Line height