Think about the last time you skimmed webpage and felt your eyes getting tired. That wasn’t you — it was the design.
A common culprit is improper line-height for your body copy.
Line-height (the space between lines of text) is one of those tiny design details that makes a big difference. Get it wrong, and your content feels like a wall of text. Get it right, and your words suddenly feel open, inviting, and easy to follow.
The Difference Line-Height Makes
Most visitors don’t read websites at first — they scan. If your text feels dense or claustrophobic, scanning becomes work, and people leave.
A balanced line-height gives your content breathing room. It guides the eye down the page without effort, so your message comes across clearly and comfortably.
Think about it: have you ever found yourself squinting or rereading a sentence because the lines felt too close together? That’s friction. And friction pushes people away.
Quick Rule of Thumb
When you’re laying out body text, we can usually count on a line-height between 1.4 and 1.6, with 1.4 always being my default go-to to start with.
Here’s the varying line heights, from 1 to 1.6, laid out for you to see the differences:
As we review the varying line-heights, we can draw these conclusions:
- 1.0: Way too tight, hard to read.
- 1.2: Getting closer, but still feels too tight.
- 1.4: Much easier to read, feels evenly spaced.
- 1.6: Too loose, feels disconnected a tad and space-y.
Now with this particular body font, I’d go with 1.4 on the line-height.
The visual cue I use when checking line-height is this: Can I fit another line of text in-between the lines? If yes, it’s too big of spacing and needs to scale down.
The Design to Dollars Connection
Line-height alone doesn’t make the sale — but it supports everything else you’re doing. When your site feels easy to scan and pleasant to read, people stick around longer. The longer they stay, the better chance they’ll click your button, sign up, or reach out.
It’s a small design decision that quietly builds trust.
See you next time,
