Line spacing seems very compressed when I place my Word document In Affinity Pub

[ajwwong]

Hello everybody. I have a quick question:

When I look at my Microsoft Word document, the spacing is nice and seems to be correct. But when I place it in my Affinity Publishing document, it no longer seems correct anymore. I'm not sure why this is.

Paragraph Spacing of 1.25 (Multiple) in Microsoft Word looks very nice. Whereas in Affinity Publisher, it feels a little bit compressed. At least in my particular document.

You can see the behavior below.

https://www.loom.com/share/d1c56755fc6e4678878326be63b55409

If anyone has any thoughts, it would be very much appreciated. Thank you so much!

Here are the documents attached. In case anybody wants to give it a spin.

 

[MikeW]

Sure. I have thoughts about Word and its line spacing versus a layout application. But I'll let Dov Isaacs from Adobe (principal pdf architect) say it.

Quote

... Typically and traditionally with professional layout software (such as InDesign), what is referred to as single spacing results in the leading being specified 1.2 times the text size. Thus, for single spacing of 11 point text size, the leading would be 13.2 points. If you want 1.5 spacing, you would multiply that value by 1.5 yielding leading of 19.8 points. (If you were using a 12 point text size, your leading would be 14.4 points for single spacing and 21.6 points for 1.5 spacing.)

Note that in Word, you can get into real trouble when you specify spacing in terms of single, double, etc. spacing. Word oddly looks at the entire font in which the text is formatted and based on some secret sauce formula, determines what the interline spacing should be. To get consistent results in Word, you must specify the line spacing (in the paragraph properties) as exactly a particular point size, using the same calculation that you would use in InDesign! ...

All that to say, they (ID, QXP, APub, VD, etc.,) are best when using traditional measurements based upon point size to affect line spacing (font metrics also play a part in the visual representations of those numbers), versus MS Word. However, just Like Word, APub also seems to have the same inter-line measurement system on the surface--Multiples. But what the metrics are for those calculations are different and so yield deferring visual results. Other layout applications may represent a closer approximation to Word (or not) with their respective means of representing Word's Multiples option.

Just a note. This, and other reasons are why someone like myself that does layout for a living stresses to new clients not to try and make the word processor version "pretty." Just make sure the words are as one wants them to be (or at least as close as possible to cut down on those pesky revisions). It's the job of the layout person to make the page read correctly (air to breathe but not too loose for the subject; as few "rivers" as possible; widows, orphans and runts dealt with; etc. That you, it seems, are wearing both hats really doesn't matter. Get the words right in Word, layout those words to satisfy your eye in APub.

Best regards, Mike

[ajwwong]

Thank you so much for taking the time to explain so thoroughly! I really appreciate it. Lifesaver.