From: Stefan Kangas <stefan@marxist.se>
To: emacs-devel@gnu.org
Subject: Increase default `line-spacing' to 0.05, 0.10 or 0.15 [proposal]
Date: Tue, 4 May 2021 10:57:51 -0500 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <CADwFkmmFW1ZDGFYnZAETbPgub3_LVq9NckhX=sZExN8ueXX-_g@mail.gmail.com> (raw)
In typography, it is well known that the line height (leading) should be
a bit larger than the font size to improve legibility. The drawback of
a larger leading is that fewer lines of text are visible on the screen
at the same time.
Emacs by default uses a leading of the font size + a few pixels (the
`line-spacing' variable is 0). Conventional wisdom seems to suggest
instead that 1.2em (where 1em is the font size) is often a good
choice.[1] Other editors also tend to use a larger leading than us.[2]
I suggest that we increase the default value of `line-spacing' to
improve legibility. I believe this would improve our OOTB experience
for the majority users and use-cases. In cases where it doesn't, users
are still free to revert to whatever was there before.
Below are the three options that I suggest we consider. Note that "If
[the] value [of `line-spacing'] is a floating point number, it specifies
the spacing relative to the default frame line height."
[I've included line numbers below for the three options on my screen and
font size, but obviously YMMV.]
A. Ideally, we would use 0.15 for maximum legibility. This is close to
1.2 em. [53 lines, 11.6 % fewer lines]
B. We could also consider 0.10 to be more cautious. [56 lines, 6.66 %]
C. A very conservative option is to use 0.05, which would be a small
incremental improvement on what we already have. [58 lines, 3.33 %]
D. The default. [60 lines, 0.0 %]
All in all, I think option B would be best, as that means we lose very
few lines on the screen (6 %). Alternatively, we could pick option C,
which loses even fewer (3 %).
The way I suggest we carry this out is an experiment on master for 30
days, similarly to how we recently did with unbinding `M-o'. This would
allow us to gather feedback and see how well this works in practice.
Footnotes:
[1] See also this link for reference:
https://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/35270/is-there-an-optimal-font-size-line-height-ratio
[2] See screenshots from some common editors here:
VSCode
https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1487073/58344409-70473b80-7e0a-11e9-8570-b2efc6f8fa44.png
Atom
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5f/Atom_screenshot_v1.41.0.png
GEdit
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3f/Gedit.png
next reply other threads:[~2021-05-04 15:57 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 44+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2021-05-04 15:57 Stefan Kangas [this message]
2021-05-04 16:12 ` Increase default `line-spacing' to 0.05, 0.10 or 0.15 [proposal] Óscar Fuentes
2021-05-04 16:59 ` Jim Porter
2021-05-05 7:08 ` Augusto Stoffel
2021-05-05 8:51 ` Daniel Mendler
2021-05-05 19:47 ` Stefan Kangas
2021-05-06 9:26 ` Augusto Stoffel
2021-05-06 10:10 ` Eli Zaretskii
2021-05-06 11:47 ` Augusto Stoffel
2021-05-06 11:57 ` Eli Zaretskii
2021-05-06 12:27 ` Augusto Stoffel
2021-05-06 15:21 ` Eli Zaretskii
2021-05-06 15:46 ` Augusto Stoffel
2021-05-06 16:16 ` Eli Zaretskii
2021-05-06 12:30 ` Gregory Heytings
2021-05-06 15:22 ` Eli Zaretskii
2021-05-06 16:21 ` Gregory Heytings
2021-05-06 16:29 ` Eli Zaretskii
2021-05-06 16:57 ` Daniele Nicolodi
2021-05-06 17:53 ` Eli Zaretskii
2021-05-06 17:57 ` Eli Zaretskii
2021-05-06 20:24 ` Daniele Nicolodi
2021-05-06 17:01 ` Gregory Heytings
2021-05-06 17:34 ` Eli Zaretskii
2021-05-06 18:15 ` Gregory Heytings
2021-05-06 20:22 ` Stefan Kangas
2021-05-06 20:21 ` Stefan Kangas
2021-05-06 23:17 ` Jim Porter
2021-05-07 6:03 ` Yuri Khan
2021-05-07 4:05 ` Eli Zaretskii
2021-05-04 16:18 ` Eli Zaretskii
2021-05-04 21:29 ` Stefan Kangas
2021-05-05 2:28 ` Eli Zaretskii
2021-05-05 5:14 ` Richard Stallman
2021-05-05 19:16 ` Stefan Kangas
2021-05-06 20:21 ` Stefan Kangas
2021-05-07 4:03 ` Eli Zaretskii
2021-05-07 18:43 ` Stefan Kangas
2021-05-08 6:19 ` Eli Zaretskii
2021-05-08 7:51 ` Daniele Nicolodi
2021-05-08 8:06 ` Eli Zaretskii
2021-05-08 9:40 ` Daniele Nicolodi
2021-05-05 12:18 ` Daniele Nicolodi
2021-05-05 19:17 ` Stefan Kangas
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