"leading" between lines---what is it? how to measure it?; additio

[Word Guy 11]

1. I must prepare a document (for court), in 12 pt. font that has "at
least 2-point leading between the lines." What does this mean?
When I go to
A. Word: home: para.: line spacing options: indents and spacing: line
spacing: single, there is the 'normal' space between lines of single-spaced
print.
I also note, however, that I can go to
B. Word: home: para.: line spacing options: indents and spacing: line
spacing: exactly: at 12 pt.---and the lines appear closer together;
changing it to 14 pt. seems to make the lines about the same as A. above.
I wonder if the . . . exactly: 14 pt., when using 12 pt. font, means
that there is a 2 pt. "leading" (the difference between 12 pt. font and 14
pt. 'exact' line spacing. Is that so?
Since the normal single spacing seems to have about the same spacing
between lines, I wonder what the actual "points" (if that is the right term)
is between lines of 12 pt. font---is it 2 (or, for example, 1.85 or 2.2 or
some such?)
2. The document also must be in one of three fonts only: Century
Expanded, Century Schoolbook, or New Century Schoolbook. My MS Word 2007 has
a "Century" font but none of the other three are shown. I see that the local
Kinko's, which also has MS Office 2007, has all three of the required fonts.
Can I get one or all of these three required fonts from Microsoft?
Thank you.

 

[Graham Mayor]

Leading is an old typesetters term and refers to refers to the amount of
added vertical spacing between lines of type. When type was set by hand in
printing presses, strips of lead of appropriate thicknesses were inserted
between lines of type to add vertical space, to fill available space on the
page. A 12 point typeface with 2 points of leading will produce a 14 point
line space. Off the top of my head, I think the single line space setting is
1.2 * the point size of the font - but I would like to see the court
official who can spot the difference between 1.75 and 2 points in a
document, without measuring it.

Century Schoolbook was provided with Access 97 SR2, Creative Writer 2,
Office 2000 Premium, Office 4.3 Professional, Office 97 Small Business
Edition SR2, Office 97 SR1a, Office Professional Edition 2003, PhotoDraw
2000, Picture It! 98, Publisher 2000, Publisher 97, Publisher 98, TrueType
Font Pack and can be installed from the installation discs of any of those
products you may have around.

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com

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[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

To add to what Graham has said, the line spacing of Times New Roman is
approximately 120% of the nominal point size. This means that 10-point type
has 12-point line spacing, which is 6 lines per inch, the same as single
spacing on an old-fashioned typewriter (which is undoubtedly why 10-pt TNR
was originally the font of Normal style).

The built-in "leading" in other fonts varies (it is greater for Arial, for
example), and has to be determined by trial and error. This can be avoided,
however, by using "Exactly 14 points" line spacing instead of Single.