Line spacing is the vertical distance between lines of text, measured from one line to the next. Most lawyers use double-spaced lines (in court filings) and then single-spaced lines everywhere else (memos, letters, etc.)
These line-spacing practices are another habit held over from the typewriter age. You could only move the carriage up vertically one line at a time on a typewriter, so your line-spacing choices were limited to single or double spacing. Double spacing became the default because single-spaced typewritten text is very hard to read.
Most courts adopted their line-spacing standards in the typewriter era, so that’s why they often require double-spaced lines. To be fair, double spacing is still useful for courts because a) it prevents lawyers from abusing page limits by jamming in the maximum lines per page and b) it creates room on the page for annotations for when the judge or the clerks are reading the papers.
For other documents, single spacing is typically too tight; one-and-a-half line spacing is too loose. The optimal line spacing is usually between 125% and 140% of the font size. So if you’re working with a 12-point font, you should use somewhere between 15 and 17 points of line spacing.
Word processors have a bewildering number of ways to set line spacing. Don’t be thrown off—it all comes back to the same thing.
Word: Line spacing in Word is handled by the Paragraph dialog box. The “Single”, “1.5 lines”, and “Double” options are equivalent to about 115%, 175%, and 230% line spacing. (Because that’s how Microsoft does math.) None of which you should use. Never use the “At least” option, because you will be giving Word permission to adjust your line spacing in unpredictable ways. “Exactly” is acceptable—you can enter a fixed line height. “Multiple” is also acceptable—instead of a percentage, you enter line spacing as a decimal. To get line spacing in the 125-140% range, use a Multiple value in the 1.10 to 1.25 range.
WordPerfect: the Format menu has options for Line Height and Line Spacing. (A distinction probably beloved by WordPerfect fans, but lost on me.) The Line Height box lets you set you line height as “Fixed” (OK) or “At Least” (not OK). The Line Spacing box lets you set line spacing as a multiple of the Line Height (also OK, though be careful of unintended consequences if you set Line Height to something other than Automatic).
Line spacing is called leading in some software programs because in days of yore, fonts were made out of metal, and to increase the space between lines, you would insert thin strips of lead between the lines.
What do you suggest for Memos and letters? Also, what about paragraph spacing and margins? I’ve tinkered with all 3 to try to get to something that’s comfortable but I seem to revert to 1″ margins, single spacing with 12p between paragaphs.
It also seems depend on the font type. Does that make sense?
Yes, it makes sense. See the entry on line length and page margins for how these all relate.
Single Spacing on Word is 1.15 of the font size (not 1x). Double Space is 2.3 x font size.
I find double spacing on Word to be too generous, so I usually manually adjust to exactly 2x the font size when the court requires double-spacing.
You’re right—thank you for the correction.
SCOTUS requires at least two points leading between lines. How would you do this in Word Perfect? It looks like neither the height or spacing options lets me do exactly that. Perhaps you just set line height at some fixed number? And, if I remember correctly, you don’t get to put in points. So you have to convert it to inches or something.
Plz help!
“nor.” Sorry.
The USSCT’s instruction uses “leading” in the older sense of “space added between lines of text” as opposed to the modern sense of “total distance from the bottom of one line of text to the next”. So when USSCT says “12-point type with 2-point or more leading between lines”, it means 12-point text with a line spacing of 14 pts or more (12 + 2)
Above, I recommend 15 to 17 points of line spacing for a 12 point font. So, anything in the 125-140% range will comply with the USSCT rule.
Though if I were preparing a USSCT brief, I would also look at some other well-formatted briefs and compare. The USSCT formatting rules are the pickiest of any court in the nation, and it would be quite obvious if one got it wrong.
Be interesting to hear your take on the concept of maintaining a “vertical rhythm” by ensuring that spaces between paragraphs and between headings and sections always conform to exact, whole multiples of the line-height. Perhaps this belongs in your ‘advanced’ section though. I’m undecided about whether it is worth the hassle or not, although certainly the line-height and vertical spacing between blocks of text do have some kind of relationship that’s often worth tweaking.
The problem with using whole multiples of the line height for vertical spacing between headings and text is that it removes any possibility of subtle spacing choices. Either things are one line-height apart (which is usually too small) or two line-heights apart (which is usually too big).
That technique is suitable for documents like newspapers and magazines that have multiple columns of text running in parallel. By using whole multiples of the line height, all the lines are guaranteed to sit on a consistent vertical grid.
However, most legal documents only have one column, so this technique causes more problems than it solves.