Line Height: Give Your Text Room to Breathe
Cramped lines tire readers fast. This calculator turns a font size and ratio into a line height you can use straight away.
What is the Line Height Calculator?
Give a font size and a line-height ratio, and the tool returns the line height in pixels and as a unitless multiple. Comfortable body text usually sits between 1.4 and 1.6, while large headings can sit tighter.
How to use it
- Enter the font size in pixels.
- Enter a line-height ratio, such as 1.5.
- Click Calculate Line Height.
Worked example
A 16 px font at a 1.5 ratio gives a 24 px line height, so a 5-line paragraph measures 120 px tall.
What line height suits 16 px body text?
At a 1.5 ratio, 16 px text gets a 24 px line height, which is a comfortable starting point for paragraphs.
Frequently asked questions
What ratio works for headings?
Headings can sit tighter, around 1.1 to 1.25, because they are short and large.
Why use a unitless ratio?
A unitless value scales with the font size, so it stays proportional if the size changes.