what is leading in typography

Leading is a term used in typography to refer to the space between multiple lines of type. It is the distance between two baselines of lines of type, measured from the baseline of one line of type to the baseline of the next. The word "leading" originates from the strips of lead hand-typesetters used to use to space out lines of text evenly. Leading is important because it helps to make text more readable and legible, especially on digital media, making the project look more polished and professional. Every program that designers use to create a typography-heavy layout has default settings for text size and leading, but making good leading choices is vital to the success of the project. Increasing the leading allows the text to breathe and makes it appear instantly more readable. The correct use of leading helps make the text more readable, and the leading adjustments that are often made are so minor that they might go unnoticed if you don’t know what you’re looking for.