Text Spacing

Guideline

In content implemented using markup languages that support the following text style properties, no loss of content or functionality occurs by setting all of the following and by changing no other style property:

Line height (line spacing) to at least 1.5 times the font size;
Spacing following paragraphs to at least 2 times the font size;
Letter spacing (tracking) to at least 0.12 times the font size;
Word spacing to at least 0.16 times the font size.

Exception: Human languages and scripts that do not make use of one or more of these text style properties in written text can conform using only the properties that exist for that combination of language and script.

Intent

The intent of this requirement is to ensure that people can override text spacing to improve their reading experience. Each of the requirements stipulated in the SC's four bullets helps ensure text styling can be adapted by the user to suit their needs.

This guideline focuses on the ability to increase spacing between lines, words, letters, and paragraphs. Any combination of these may assist a user with effectively reading text. As well, ensuring users can override author settings for spacing also signficantly increases the likelihood other style preferences can be set by the user. For example, a user may need to change to a wider font family than the author has set in order to effectively read text.

This guideline does not dictate that authors must set all their content to the specified metrics. Rather, it specifies that an author's content has the ability to be set to those metrics without loss of content or functionality. The author requirement is both to not interfere with a user's ability to override the author settings, and to ensure that content thus modified does not break content in the manners shown in figures 1 through 4 in Effects of Not Allowing for Spacing Override.

Finding Applicable Components

This guideline affects and applies to all visible elements.

Inspecting and Using Components

Adjust text spacing to guideline requirements either via user stylesheet, bookmarklet, extension, or application. To adjust via stylesheet, see the following CSS code:

* {
    line-height: 1.5em !important;
    letter-spacing: .12em !important;
    word-spacing: .16em !important;
}

p {
    margin-bottom: 2em !important;
}

Section 508/WCAG 2.0 Failure Conditions

Adjusting text spacing results in loss of content (such as text overlapping or being cut off) or loss of functionality.
- Fails 1.4.12: Text Spacing

Accessibility Testing Procedure