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Line height is the vertical distance between two lines of type, measured from the baseline of one line of type to the baseline of the next. Traditionally, in metal type, this was the combined measurement of the font size and the strips of lead that were inserted between each row (called “leading”) of type.

![A paragraph of text with two background rectangles highlighting one of the lines. The shortest rectangle emulates the the traditional notion of leading; i.e., the extra space between lines. The tallest rectangle represents line height; i.e., the combination of the line itself *and* the additional spacing between lines.](images/thumbnail.svg)

Line height has a direct impact on the readability of text, so understanding it is one of the most fundamental typographic practices.

It’s possible to set the line height value in a number of units, as with font size, although those units could be different. For instance, we might set our font-size in pixels, but then declare the line height with a percentage value:

p {
	font-size: 16px;
	line height:150%; /* Equivalent to 24px */
}