Adjust The Leading & Tracking
Leading is the space between lines of type, and tracking is the space between letters. Learn how to quickly change the leading and tracking in a text box and perfectly line up your type with a photo.
Video: 07-05 Adjust The Leading & Tracking (4:35)
Learn how to quickly change the space between lines of type in a text box and also change the space between letters.
In a text box, the space between lines is called letting it's spelled l e a d i n g, so you might want to pronounce it LEEding, but in the context of type it's pronounced leading. To learn about leading we'll use this document called Tower-Bridge.psd. It's in your Part 7, lesson five practice folder if you want to follow along.
Changing the lettering is really quite simple. Get the Type tool and open Tool Options. In the Layers panel, click on the layer you want to adjust. Highlight the type on that layer by double clicking on the type thumbnail. Then click and drag on the word Leading in Tool Options. Dragging to the left makes the space between lines smaller and dragging to the right makes a space between lines larger. I'll make the space a little bit smaller between the lines, and then click on the checkmark to commit the change.
Let me show you how to use lettering to make your type line up with a phot. We'll use guides to make it easier. In the Layers panel click on the photo layer. If your rulers aren't showing in the Menu Bar, choose View, Rulers. Also make sure view Snap to Guides is checked, so the guides will snap to the size of the photo. Click and drag a guide from the top ruler to the bottom of the photo. Click and drag another guide from the top ruler to the top of the photo. Activate the type layer and click and drag the top and bottom handles to line up with the guides. And they'll snap to the guides. Also adjust the side handles if necessary. And I'll move the handle to the left just a little bit to adjust the lettering so the type fits from top to bottom.
Click and drag on the word Leading in Tool Options. And I'll drag to the right to expand the space between lines. Don't try to be exact on the first try, just get it close. Click on the checkmark to commit the type.
Now you can zoom in and make any necessary adjustments. The top looks great, the type lines up perfectly with the guide. Now let's look at the bottom. The bottom doesn't quite reach the line. But trying to click and drag on the word Leading for such a small adjustment is almost impossible. So we'll adjust the points instead.
Activate the Type tool and in Tool Options, change the Leading point to the next higher number, which is 28. And that's too much. Now we can't see the last line. So I'll highlight the number again and we'll try 27.5. And that's pretty good there. But there's a tiny bit of space there. So let's try one more point instead of 27.5. We'll do 27.6. And that looks perfect. So I'll click on the checkmark to commit the type.
Here's the full view. But I don't like having only one word at the end of the journaling. So let's activate the type and move the right handle in a bit. And I like that better. To get rid of the guides in the menu bar, choose View, Clear Guides, and choose View, Rulers to get rid of the rulers.
Let me show you one more thing. And that's how to adjust the Tracking which is the space between letters. I'll demonstrate on the title. Highlight the title by double clicking on the title thumbnail. In Tool Options, you can change the Tracking number, but it's easier just to click and drag on the word Tracking. Go to the left to decrease the space between letters and to the right to increase the space. And I'll bring that back a little bit but I'm going to leave it slightly expanded and then click on the checkmark to commit the change. So that's how to change the Leading, or space between lines of text and how to adjust the Tracking, or the space between letters.