Spacing and Padding and Margins, oh my!

When talking about digital text it may seem a bit backwards to start with spacing, however this is a key element in content readability. The amount of space you place between your website’s elements dictates how quickly your reader’s eyes can dart from section to section.

10 years ago you’d be hard pressed to push beliefs that extra spacing can help. Most websites were running 10px Arial font squished together paragraph after paragraph streaming down the page. Setting a strong value for your line-height will give your paragraphs (and your visitors) room to actually breathe.

You’ll also want to ensure there is enough margin spacing set after each paragraph. Distinctive spacing within text blocks can help align your reader’s eyes with the content flow on the page. Anywhere from 15px-25px is perfect for a bottom margin set on all your paragraphs and even a few headings.

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