#lang pollen

◊(define-meta title "line spacing")
◊hanging-topic[(topic-from-metas metas)]{120–145% of the point size}

◊em{Line spacing} is the vertical distance between lines of text. Most lawyers use either double-spaced lines or single-spaced lines — nothing in between.

These are obsolete ◊xref{typewriter habits}. Originally, a typewriter’s platen could only move the paper vertically in units of a single line. Therefore, line-spacing choices were limited to one, two, or more lines at a time. Double-spacing became the default because single-spaced typewritten text is dense and hard to read. But double-spacing is still looser than optimal.

Most courts adopted their line-spacing standards in the typewriter era. That’s why court rules usually call for double-spaced lines. On a typewriter, each line is the height of the font, thus double spacing means twice the font size. So if you’re required to use a 12-point font, double line spacing means 24 points.

Curiously, the so-called “double” line-spacing option in your word processor doesn’t produce true double line spacing. Microsoft Word’s “double” spacing, for instance, is about 15% looser, and it varies depending on the font. To get accurate spacing, you should always set it yourself, exactly.