Fonts & breathing space

Line length, line height and text spacing: what the standard asks for, and what the research adds.

80characters is WCAG’s ceiling for a line

StandardW3C, WCAG 2.2 (1.4.8) (opens the source)3 min read

Line length and line height: what the standard says, and what the research adds

Two settings decide how a block of text feels before anyone reads a word: how wide the lines are and how far apart they sit. The accessibility standard gives a number for each. Here is where those numbers come from, and where the evidence is thinner than the numbers suggest.

Read the note: Line length and line height: what the standard says, and what the research adds

0.12of the font size, as letter spacing your page must survive

StandardW3C, WCAG 2.2 (1.4.12) (opens the source)3 min read

Space between letters and words: can your page survive a reader’s settings?

The text-spacing rule in WCAG does not tell you how to space your type. It asks something different: if a reader widens the spacing, does your page still work?

Read the note: Space between letters and words: can your page survive a reader’s settings?

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