Line spacing changed.

users
#1

Hi. Since updating to LO 5.2.... the text of existing documents from I think 5.0... flows further down the page by about 1 line/page. There is no change to wrapping (the text is not longer) but the line spacing is greater and the document layout is mucked up. Changing line spacing in the default paragraph style to proportional (98%) resolves the issue.

I wonder if anyone else has noticed, would it be considered a bug or is increased line spacing a readability feature.
Steve

#2

Are all things equal, i.e., same fonts on the same system? Some fonts
have different default line spacing than others. For example, Palatino
Linotype's default "single" space line spacing is noticeably wider than
Georgia's. If you're using a document that was created in Windows on a
Linux system or vice-versa, the original fonts might be swapped out for
an equivalent on the second OS, which may have different line spacing.

I've not yet upgraded to 5.2, preferring to stay with the 5.1 family for
now, so I can't confirm your experience, but I'd first check with the
fonts. They all have different concepts of "single" or "double" spacing
built in.

Virgil

#3

Hi.

Hi. Since updating to LO 5.2.... the text of existing documents from I
think 5.0... flows further down the page by about 1 line/page. There
is no change to wrapping (the text is not longer) but the line spacing
is greater and the document layout is mucked up. Changing line spacing
in the default paragraph style to proportional (98%) resolves the issue.

I wonder if anyone else has noticed, would it be considered a bug or
is increased line spacing a readability feature.
Steve

Are all things equal, i.e., same fonts on the same system? Some fonts
have different default line spacing than others. For example, Palatino
Linotype's default "single" space line spacing is noticeably wider than
Georgia's. If you're using a document that was created in Windows on a
Linux system or vice-versa, the original fonts might be swapped out for
an equivalent on the second OS, which may have different line spacing.

I've not yet upgraded to 5.2, preferring to stay with the 5.1 family for
now, so I can't confirm your experience, but I'd first check with the
fonts. They all have different concepts of "single" or "double" spacing
built in.

Virgil

Same computer, same fonts, I now use arial exclusively as I had similar issues in the past with a system and LO update which I put font substitution of the previously used font not being available. Nothing changed except updating LO.
Steve

#4

Sorry, but I'm stumped now. My computer knowledge is fairly limited.
Hopefully somebody else who knows more than I can help.

Virgil

#5

If you're up for experimenting, save the altered document as either an fodt
or pdf, and then check to see what fonts are actually included in those.
With fodt, open the file in a text editor - not a word processor; you'll be
able to look through the style listings to see what fonts are actually used.
For pdf files, Acrobat Reader lets you see a list of embedded fonts.

Depending on the number of fonts used in your document, this may or may not
help you figure out if Writer has decided to substitute one or more of those
fonts (it gives no indication in the program that it has done so). Also be
aware that if LibreOffice replaced the version of some existing font on your
system, that could also explain what is happening. Look at the dates on the
font files being used (they're in different locations depending on the OS,
whether they're installed just for you or for all users, etc. so I can't
help you there). Since you likely don't know what dates were on the font
files before the LO update, this won't really tell you anything unless the
date stands out as being inconsistent with your original install (and later
than that date).

And - if absolutely necessary, you can edit the style (assuming you're using
styles) to set a fixed line spacing (Format > Paragraph > Indents & Spacing

Line Spacing > Fixed - the box will show what is actually in use, and you

can play with this setting to see if it forces line spacing back to where it
used to be). This is NOT RECOMMENDED because of side effects, but might get
you out of an immediate jam until you can figure out what's going on.

#6

Issue is also open on the BZ tracker as tdf#104135
<https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=104135>

#7

I've played a little with your two files. I printed page 3 of each PDF
file and compared the two. On my printouts, the line spacing was
identical until the second line of the first bullet of section 1.1.7. At
that point, one started getting tighter.

This was the first paragraph on the page with a bullet. As I looked at
the rest of the page, the line spacing between the two was the same in
all paragraphs except the bulleted paragraphs. So, it appears that
something in those particular paragraphs is causing the discrepancy.

I then installed 5.2 on my Windows partition, and loaded in a 42 page
document that I had created in 5.1. All was well in terms of line
spacing and pagination. My document wasn't nearly as involved as yours,
so that could explain a part of it.

I do think, however, that your issue is in your bulleted paragraphs.

Good luck.

Virgil

#8

If the problem "goes away" when removing bullets, you are probably a victim
of bug # 92657.

Read through the entire conversation at:
https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=92657

Writer will sometimes substitute bullets from another font even when there
are bullets in the font you're using; this is related to other font
substitutions it makes based on the font matching info it gets from the OS.

If this is the case, the spacing between the line with the bullet and the
line immediately below it in the same paragraph will have greater spacing
that what exists between any subsequent two lines in the same paragraph. If
so, it may or may not help for you to post a confirmation reply to that bug
along with the usual info: OS & version, version of LO, name of font in use,
and anything else you think might be useful.

I believe this is actually part of the deeper font substitution problem
(although I suspect the thing with bullets is a special case). You CAN, by
the way, sort of make the problem disappear by editing the bulleted list
style and specifying a smaller bullet or your default font. Go to Styles and
Formatting either from the Menu, the sidebar, or by pressing F11. Then
choose Character Styles, and then Bullets (this latter does NOT appear
unless you are set to "Show ALL styles" and even then it may show up as a
series of 7 boxes instead of the characters "Bullets."

Then, choose "Modify" and you'll see that Writer is not using your paragraph
font for the bullets. Here you can do one of two things: making sure that
you can see the actual document, change the font size and press "Apply" - if
your paragraph size is set to 12, for instance, set the bullet style to 10
and see what happens. (Actually, first try setting it much larger and press
Apply just to prove to yourself that this is the cause of your particular
problem.) The other option is to simply change the font to the one you are
using as the paragraph font and you'll see the problem disappear.

I hope this has been explained clearly enough that you can "fix" your
document.

#9

Thanks.
The bullets, viewed when opened in LO 5.2.3.3 were starsymbol and not Arial like the text. Changing the bullets to arial made the document display correctly.
steve