Text Spacing

The text spacing rule checks whether there is adequate space between paragraphs, lines, and words. Sufficient space helps users easily distinguish and comprehend content. This is important for improving readability for users with dyslexia, low vision, or cognitive impairments.

Success Criteria

This rule verifies that the text has enough space between lines, words, and paragraphs to improve readability. The specific criteria for success are:

• Line height is at least 1.5 times the font size.
• Space between paragraphs is 2 times the font size.
• Space between words is at least 0.16 times the font size.

How to fix?

To prevent text spacing violations:

• Line height
  Set the line height to at least 1.5 times the font size. You can set the height using various properties, such as android:lineSpacingExtra, lineSpacingMultipliers, and others.
• Paragraph spacing
  Set the space between text views in Android to 2 times the font size. Use parameters similar to layout_marginBottom and layout_marginTop to set the spacing.
• Word spacing
  Set the space between words to at least 0.16 times the font size. You can use the android:letterSpacing property to set the spacing for Android.

Example

Consider the following example:

Error:
The example highlights multiple text spacing violations:

• In violations #2 and #4, the paragraph and word spacing are set correctly, but the line spacing is not set.
• In violation #3, none of the required parameters, line height, paragraph spacing, or word spacing, are set.

How to fix:
Ensure that the properties for line height, paragraph spacing, and word spacing are set correctly as follows:

• Line height is 1.5 times the font size.
• Space between text views in Android is 2 times the font size.
• Word spacing is at least 0.16 times the font size.

Reference

• Learn more about Text Spacing: 2.1 - 1.4.12 (Level AA) guideline
• Learn more about Text Spacing: 2.2 - 1.4.12 (Level AA) guideline