Add "tight" leading to preset leading
From the beginning, Illustrator has offered an "Auto" setting for leading, plus specific setting numbers (12pt, 14pt, 18pt, 21pt, et al). What I wish that you would add is a setting for "tight leading," in other words, leading set to the same point size as the font itself. Like 10/10, 12/12, 72/72. Seems like an easy, one line of code kind of addition. And I, for one, would be eternally grateful for it.
Captain Digital
shared this idea
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Actually making it a percentage of the font size IS a way to set and forget, since it makes a relation between these two.
But +2 or +4 is an absolute difference, and it means the larger the text becomes, the lesser is the leading compared to the size...
Perhaps this is what you want, but I don’t understand why. Basing leading on a width of the frame is a known approach, but basing on just a size...
Can you share some examples when a text needs this?Anyway, if you need bo1th 100% and 120% — is can be done, since Auto Leading is a paragrph-level option, just like the attached image shows.
The only downside is that we need to dive into the dialog, and this is 2-3 clicks and typing a value... but it can be solved with a couple of actions. -
Captain Digital
commented
I could do that, but I don't see why it would really help. There are times I need the auto setting on leading, and times I need it tight. Perhaps a better solution would be to give us a couple of configurable settings, like +0, +2, +4 points, that we could set and forget, making the settings dependent on point size.
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Oh, I get you, I never need it to be what Ai offers with its Auto.
So I changed it — this can be done today.
From the Paragraph panel’s flyout menu open Justification dialog.
For Auto Leading set 100% instead of 120%.
Commit. Now Auto will make it 'tight', as you expect.Now the problem is how to make it a default option, because this setting gets applied to the current Paragraph Style in the current document only.
One solution would be to modify the document profile (or several) Illustrator uses to create new documents. You can create your own modify existing ones (Print, Web, Mobile, Film & Video, Art & Illustration) — but default ones will revert back to the fabric defaults once Illustrator updates, so you better backup them. Won’t change custom ones.
You can refer to this help article to do that: https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/kb/create-custom-new-document-profile.htmlAnother solution I personally use is to create an action that changes the currently selected text object into a default one: it sets the font, the size, the options, including auto leading. This gives me freedom to make anything default in any document, not a newly created one only.
And surely you can use both methods at once.
Does it help you in any way? Please comment back.
