Using Paragraph Spacing

Applies to the following areas:

Documents Online Courses

Websites Presentations

Overview

Spacing between paragraphs aids readability and ensures the content does not appear dense and intimidating. A line spacing of 1.5 is often the best for accessibility. Use paragraph spacing almost like punctuation. Guide your viewer's experience of your content actions and spacing.

Use Paragraph Spacing for Readability

Indented body paragraphs, or indented paragraph styles, do not need extra vertical space between them, which means they do not include extra space after a paragraph.

Body paragraphs, or block paragraph style, are not indented and need vertical space to indicate the paragraph break.

To improve accessibility in paragraphs, consider the following guidelines:

• Line height (line spacing) should be at least 1.5 times the font size.
• Spacing the following paragraphs should be at least 2 to 3 times the font size.
• Letter spacing (tracking) should be at least 0.15 times the font size.
• Word spacing should be at least 0.15 times the font size. Using a default or larger font size with 1 to 1.5 paragraph spacing also improves readability.

 

Tips

• Using paragraph spacing makes documents easy to scan.
• May increase comprehension. It helps prevent readers from losing their place.
• Creates a visually appealing layout and promotes a seamless user experience.
• Do not use spaces and lines to control spacing and layout.

 

Steps to change line spacing in Word

Steps to change line spacing in Google Docs

 

WCAG 2.1 Success Criteria

The issues described on this page map to the following success criteria in the W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1:

• 1.4.12 Text Spacing Info (Level AA)