Why can't I change the leading to minus?

[bartl]

Hi,

It seems Publisher does not allow me to put the line spacing to minus? It seems it always MUST be adjusted not lower than 100%? PLEASE TELL ME I AM WRONG! Please tell me I am just missing a tiny thing somewhere.

Super annoyed,

bartl

[walt.farrell]

17 minutes ago, bartl said:

It seems Publisher does not allow me to put the line spacing to minus?

Where are you trying to change it?

The Leading field in the Paragraph panel will accept negative values when I type them, though I'm not sure that makes any sense since a negative value would move a line higher visually than the line just before it.

All the Leading fields I've tried, and Leading Override, will let you go smaller than the current font size, which can sometimes be useful.

[bartl]

Hi Walt,

I try to change it in the character panel (cmd-t), and also in the paragraph panel. In percent as well as in pt.

No effect whatsoever.

[thomaso]

bartl, what do you visually want to achieve with negative line spacing? Reverting the order of lines, e.g to make the second line appear above the first?

[walt.farrell]

50 minutes ago, bartl said:

I try to change it in the character panel (cmd-t), and also in the paragraph panel. In percent as well as in pt.

No effect whatsoever.

If changing the Leading or Leading Override don't work at all, I would check whether you have a Baseline Grid active.

[bartl]

11 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

If changing the Leading or Leading Override don't work at all, I would check whether you have a Baseline Grid active.

.... aaaaand now we are talking. The grid box in the pharagraph panel was checked by default. Unchecked it - and now I can enter a minus leading. Thank you so much Walt, you made my day!!!

👏

 

[bartl]

58 minutes ago, thomaso said:

bartl, what do you visually want to achieve with negative line spacing? Reverting the order of lines, e.g to make the second line appear above the first?

Hey Thomaso,

I need it for an effect. And a tiny space for lots of text in a business card.

[thomaso]

35 minutes ago, bartl said:

I need it for an effect. And a tiny space for lots of text in a business card.

But for what appearance do you want a negative leading?
Isn't zero narrow enough? This shows font size 20 with leading 10 > 5 > 0

 

[bartl]

10 hours ago, thomaso said:

But for what appearance do you want a negative leading?
Isn't zero narrow enough? This shows font size 20 with leading 10 > 5 > 0

 

Thanks Thomaso, don't worry about that. I am a pro and I am doing typography since '92.

[thomaso]

2 hours ago, bartl said:

don't worry about that. I am a pro

I don't worry, I just would like to understand what you try to achieve. To me each negative value shows the same result, I may type it but it doesn't go further than zero.

Or did you think of a negative value only because zero appeared insufficient when the baseline grid was working?

[walt.farrell]

5 hours ago, thomaso said:

To me each negative value shows the same result, I may type it but it doesn't go further than zero.

Thanks for mentioning that. I see the same on Windows. I can set the leading to, e.g., -12.4 pt, and it will appear in the Leading field. But it gives the same effect as setting it to 0 pt. The lines exactly overlap, and the second line will not shift to above the first line.

[MicheleN]

Walt,

What happens if you set the leading to 0, and then use a baseline shift on the second line?

[bartl]

23 hours ago, thomaso said:

Or did you think of a negative value only because zero appeared insufficient when the baseline grid was working?

Thomaso, exactly, that was it.