Getting Line and Paragraph Spacing Just Right in Your Document
The standard spacing strategy is to use a decreasing amount of space as you move down the document.
The space between the title block and the text that follows should be the greatest: that sets the title apart from the rest of the document. The space between a section heading and the body text that follows it should be more than the space between the lines of text that after the heading. Following this simple spacing rule will make the document easy for your readers to follow.
Leading
You'll notice that I've included "leading" information in the illustration above. The term comes from the early days of printing when metal type was set by hand and different sized lead spacers were used. Fortunately, today we can adjust spacing more easily.
To adjust the leading in InDesign, highlight the line of text you want to adjust and go to the Character menu (Window > Type & Tables > Character or Ctrl + T). The leading can be adjusted by clicking the control arrows, selecting a value from the drop down or by entering a specific value. The leading in the example is set to 23pt and the text is only 8 pt. That setting means there is a large space ABOVE the highlighted text. Leading only affects the spacing above the text that is selected.
Paragraph Spacing in InDesign
You can also use the Paragraph Spacing function in InDesign. Add space before or after a paragraph via the Paragraph menu (Window > Type & Tables > Character or Alt + Ctrl + T). In this example the Space After the paragraph that ends with December, 2001 is set to .125".
