Line spacing needs to be done in proportion to the page width. As you increase the line length, the line spacing must gradually increase. For a typical web pag

Line spacing needs to be done in proportion to the page width. As you increase the line length, the line spacing must gradually increase. For a typical web page, line spacing as large as 1.4 or 1.5 does more harm than good. First of all, it doesn't do any good (see http://blogs.msdn.com/fontblog/archive/2006/05/17/600507.aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/fontblog/archive/2006/05/17/600507.asp...). Secondly, it makes the user scroll more to read the content. Scrolling is way worse for readability than tight line spacing. A lot of people use Verdana, and Verdana is a very legible typeface. But, because it is so open, and because of its enormous x-height, it tends to look wrong without excessive line spacing. Also, its normal weight is basically semi-bold at small sizes on LCD screens with Cleartype enabled, and that also encourages excessive line height. I've not seen any evidence that says that these huge line heights actually improve reading performance; the primary benefit of huge line spacing is an improvement in the "color" of the page when using Verdana. Microsoft's new Cleartype font collection (the C* fonts) are slightly less open, don't have such an enormous x-height, and are less bold at small sizes. Consequently, a line height of 1.2 or 1.25 is plenty when with less than 75 characters per line.