The line spacing setting in Simpletext has evolved gradually over the years. Here’s a backstory.
Once upon a time, you can’t use your own font in Simpletext. You can only select from the three professional fonts included. The line spacing for each of them is fixed at what I think is the most optimal spacing for that particular font.
I then received requests from users who wanted a more compact line spacing on the iPhone so they could fit more text on the screen. Conversely, I also received requests for larger line spacing, presumably to cater for devices with a larger screen. So I added the line spacing setting with three options: compact, standard and wide.
Each option has a line spacing value that’s optimized for the current font — the compact line spacing for Monospaced has a different value than the compact line spacing for Sans Serif. The intention is to make the setting as simple as possible so you don’t have to tinker with the individual values.
This works well, until I added support for custom typeface in version 4.3. With custom typeface, I wouldn’t know what font you’ll be using. So I had to define a generic line spacing value for compact, standard and wide. It works, but it’s not optimal for every font. You see, a line spacing of 1.0 is considered “compact” for certain fonts, but for others it may look better at 1.1. It’s subtle, but important if you want to create the perfect writing space.
That’s why in Simpletext 4.5, I’ve replaced the compact, standard and wide options with an actual line spacing value that you can set. This gives you the flexibility to design the perfect writing space for yourself.
Please feel free to explore all the settings available in Simpletext, and happy writing!