---
name: Text spacing
slug: text-spacing
category: accessibility
status: published
created: 2026-08-21T00:00:00.000Z
modified: 2026-08-21T00:00:00.000Z
definition: The requirement that a reader can increase line height, letter
  spacing, word spacing, and paragraph spacing without any content being lost or
  clipped.
aliases:
  - name: WCAG 1.4.12
    source: wcag
  - name: text spacing override
  - name: user stylesheet spacing
tags:
  - spacing
  - wcag
relations:
  contrastWith:
    - resize-text
    - leading
  variantOf: []
  partOf: []
  seeAlso:
    - reflow
implementations: []
sources:
  - title: 1.4.12 Text Spacing (Deque University)
    url: https://dequeuniversity.com/resources/wcag2.1/1.4.12-text-spacing
demo: inline
exhibit: false
useWhen: proving a layout survives reader-set spacing
---

Some people read far more comfortably with the text opened up. Readers with dyslexia,
low vision, or a tracking difficulty routinely install a user stylesheet or a browser
extension that loosens [leading](/leading) and [tracking](/tracking) across every site
they visit. WCAG's success criterion 1.4.12 does not ask you to ship those values. It
asks that when a reader applies them, nothing breaks: no content is lost, no function is
lost, nothing is clipped by a box that refuses to grow.

The four numbers are exact, and they are stated as multiples of the font size rather than
of whatever spacing the design already had. Line height at least 1.5 times the font size,
spacing following paragraphs at least 2 times the font size, letter spacing at least 0.12
times, and word spacing at least 0.16 times. Applying all four at once is the test, which
is why the criterion is usually checked with a bookmarklet that sets them in one go
rather than by reasoning about a stylesheet.

Almost every failure comes from a height that was decided before the text arrived. A card
with a fixed pixel height, a button whose label is centred by `line-height: 40px`, a
truncated row with `overflow: hidden`, a badge sized to fit exactly one word. Setting
`line-height` in pixels is the classic one, because a pixel line height silently discards
the reader's setting instead of failing loudly. Unitless line heights, `min-height`
instead of `height`, and padding rather than fixed rows fix most of it. Note that the
criterion is about not preventing the override, so text in a box that grows passes even
if the layout ends up taller than the designer intended.

Its siblings ask different questions about the same reader. [Resize text](/resize-text)
is about scaling the type itself to 200 percent, and [reflow](/reflow) is about the page
at 320 CSS pixels wide. Text spacing changes neither the size nor the viewport: the type
stays exactly as large, and only the air between the letters, words, lines, and
paragraphs grows. A layout can survive zoom by reflowing to a phone layout and still fail
this one, because the phone layout has fixed-height cards too.