Line height is a mess usually

[Adam Simon]

Maybe because I'm from Adobe workflow I don't understand something but line height doesn't make any sense. When I change it to auto makes it huge.

As you can se there is 194,6 pt as AUTO. What is that? Am I missing something?

[Old Bruce]

You have an override on the line height 194.6 pts try setting it to 0 pt.

 

Edit just checked and my advice is not close to correct. 

What the auto means is the Kerning.

Leading is in the Paragraph Panel.

[Mark Oehlschlager]

@Adam Simon

Some things are definitely handled differently in Affinity, and leading is one of them.

In Affinity, standard leading (line spacing) is actually set in the Paragraph panel, NOT in the Character panel. What looks like a leading attribute field in the Character panel is actually a "Leading Override" attribute field. Presumably it made some sense to the developers that someone would want to override the leading values set in the Paragraph panel, and so redefined the leading field in the Character panel to function as a leading override.

I have no idea why they designed the software this way. It makes no sense to me.

[Adam Simon]

The only issue with that I never overrided it or made any special adjustment. I can't feel the Leading "just works" as should be. I'd like to set custom line spacing usually but I always facing to this issue by default.

In that case I'm curious how did I messed up so easy.

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, Adam Simon said:

I'd like to set custom line spacing usually but I always facing to this issue by default.

How do you set it?

[R C-R]

On 2/27/2020 at 5:53 PM, Mark Oehlschlager said:

I have no idea why they designed the software this way. It makes no sense to me.

I believe it is because items set in the Paragraph panel are applied to entire paragraphs while those set in the Character panel can be applied to single characters, to words, or to lines. Of course, leading override will always be applied to an entire line but it can be just one line in a multi-line paragraph.

 

On 2/27/2020 at 5:25 PM, Old Bruce said:

Edit just checked and my advice is not close to correct. 

What the auto means is the Kerning.

IIRC, prior to the 1.8 updates Kerning worked only on character pairs or some such, so unless some text was selected (highlighted) in a block of text, trying to adjust the Kerning had no effect. Now, I can't get it to do anything no matter what I select in a text block -- only two choices are not greyed out, "Auto" & "0‰." neither of those has any effect.

Am I just not doing it right or is this not working in 1.8?

[lacerto]

(..)

[lacerto]

(...)

[Wireman]

On 2/27/2020 at 7:52 PM, Adam Simon said:

As you can se there is 194,6 pt as AUTO. What is that? Am I missing something?

Is your text two separate paragraphs? Did you create the container with the Frame Text tool or the Artistic Text tool?

You have 194.6pt leading on that, applied as a percentage (Auto) of the 32.7pt type height. That can happen with inadvertent mouse/trackpad action.

Also, the (194.6pt) is a leading override, because it is applied in the Character panel. True leading is set in the Paragraph panel.

If your text is actually two paragraphs (can't see because AD doesn't show "invisibles" in text), the inter-par spacing may be playing a part as well.

I find the best method to use (and I do this in InDesign too) is create a paragraph style for your text. You can set font, size, spacing, etc in the paragraph style dialog, in a way that the paragraph panel doesn't allow. That way you can see all the attributes affecting your text without having to flip between panels.

[Wireman]

9 hours ago, R C-R said:

prior to the 1.8 updates Kerning worked only on character pairs

It still does. Kerning is the space between two glyphs (characters). It's best set without anything highlighted. Strictly, it is "kerning override", as the space between letters is a factor of the font's internal kerning table (assuming the font is proportional and comes with one). If you want to bring two glyphs closer together put the cursor between them and adjust the kerning. If you highlight, you're adjusting the space behind and in front of the glyph. In that case, AD will only allow you to select Auto (obey the kerning table) or 0 ‰ (ignore the kerning table). This is a sensible restriction, as it saves you from being shunned by Right-Thinking People.

If you want to see a kerning table in action, type the word TRAVEL in Arial Regular: The size doesn't matter.. With the arrow keys, step your cursor along the word, letter by letter, and watch the Kerning box in the Character panel. It will read (0 ‰) between T and R and R and A. But between A and V it jumps to (-74 ‰). It's back to (0 ‰) for the rest. Now type Travel and do the same thing. Now the space between  a and v is (0 ‰), but between T and r is (-37 ‰). Those numbers are embedded in the font. You can change (override) any embedded kerning value, but only if your cursor is in the space between the two characters you want to bring further together (or push further apart). Change Travel (or TRAVEL) to a different font. The numbers will be different. The parenthesis tells you it's using the font's kerning table. The ‰ means 1,000th of an em. If you need "em" explained, you shouldn't be setting type.

If  you want to bring all the letters closer together ("tighten"), use Tracking. That will affect the space between all the characters you have highlighted. If you adjust tracking without highlighting, it will affect all the characters in the word your cursor is in. Tracking is best applied to entire lines, otherwise visible Crimes Against Typography occur; and they make the Baby Jesus cry.

[R C-R]

13 hours ago, Wireman said:

If you want to bring two glyphs closer together put the cursor between them and adjust the kerning.

Thank you so much for mentioning that! I knew there had to be a way to get it to work because I had used it once or twice but that was so long ago that I could not remember what it was.

[Adam Simon]

Just bumping up this thread again. Since weeks I've got used to the „Affinity logic” of text box handling. I think the default invisibility of paragraph panel makes the user confused easily. Overriding the baseline height on the character panel too easy without noticing it. Maybe Affinity team has to rethink the UX behind this functionality.

I also hope they're planning to create dynamic property bar. That's the future I think. Maybe Affinity 2.0? Who knows :).

[walt.farrell]

51 minutes ago, Adam Simon said:

I think the default invisibility of paragraph panel makes the user confused easily.

As far as I know, the Character and Paragraph panels are equally visible or invisible.

But it is too easy when one has a mouse with a scroll wheel to inadvertently change settings in the panels if the mouse happens to be over an input field when you try to scroll the panel itself.