Space Before and After?

[Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca>]

Alan Quirt wondered: <<I have always used Space After each body text 
paragraph style, and both Space Before and Space After for headings, 
choosing the amount by eye. As a technical person whose documents were 
a by-product, that was good enough.>>

And as a professional, it's also probably good enough. The thing about 
"choosing by eye" is that it's not nearly as arbitrary as it might 
sound, at least not if you also engage your brain: design should always 
be about _both_ form and function. The eye tells you about form; the 
mind tells you about function.

<<Can you offer advice on how to choose good values for paragraph 
spacing? Should it be based mostly on font size? Should it be greater 
when margins are wider? Do particular kinds of document need special 
treatment?>>

Books have been written on this subject, but to honor my frequent claim 
that there's no subject that can't be _summarized_ in 200 words (plus 
or minus), here's a shot at each of your questions, in semi-logical 
order:

Spacing depends first and foremost on the nature of what you're 
producing: something intended primarily to be read needs much less 
spacing than something intended to be admired from a distance. This is 
why type in ads and graphic designs tend to be much more open (more 
white space) than novels, for example. Let's assume that you're talking 
***technical writing*** (the "particular kinds of document" you 
wondered about) and move on from there.

The first principle of spacing is that things that belong together and 
that are intended to work as a unit should be closer together than 
things that belong apart and that are intended to work as separate 
units. This is also true in writing designed to be gazed at (e.g., ads 
and graphic designs), but with different definitions of visual unity.

Thus, headings are typically at least as far from paragraphs (they 
relate to all paragraphs under that heading) as the distance between 
paragraphs, and sentences in a paragraph are no farther apart than the 
space between paragraphs. Sentences come close together because they 
serve as a single unit (the paragraph), paragraphs come close together 
because they serve as a single unit (a section), and headings come 
close to paragraphs because they also serve as a single unit (the 
section).

This is why, for example, paragraphs with initial indents are typically 
set without additional space (the space between paragraphs is provided 
solely by the leading of each line of type) and why paragraphs 
separated by blank lines (instead of using initial indents) are usually 
separated by a single blank line with leading identical to that of the 
paragraphs.

As you can see, this rule of thumb suggests that font size (not to 
mention line width and leading) determines the spacing. Depending on 
the font, and thus on leading and (in a well-designed document) line 
length (your question re. margins), spacing above and below headings 
and paragraphs will also vary, usually in more or less direct 
proportion to the font size.

All of this is complicated by the fact that some things "just look 
right" to the eye accustomed to reading them. If you were brought up in 
a culture with 1-inch gaps below all headings, this would look normal 
to you and any smaller spacing would feel uncomfortable. The "by eye" 
spacing that you currently use will have been conditioned by the kinds 
of things you're used to reading.

Are there absolute rules? No. I'm sure you could find studies that 
provide general recommendations, but all studies of typography must 
accept a tradeoff between two states: one in which factors are so 
carefully controlled that the results relate only to the specific study 
conditions, and factors so loosely controlled that the results don't 
apply to any specific condition. Typography is a multidimensional art, 
and it's difficult (probably impossible) to simplify those multiple 
dimensions simultaneously into a single all-encompassing rule.

Pant pant. Okay, 200 words, plus or minus. <g>

--Geoff Hart   ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca
(try geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com if you don't get a reply)
www.geoff-hart.com


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