How to Add a Line Break in WordPress for Better Readability (New Line Spacing)

As a webmaster with over 15 years of experience, I can tell you that line spacing is one of the most overlooked but impactful typography details for improving readability on the web.

Properly adjusting line height and paragraph spacing makes text easier to read by reducing crowding and increasing whitespace. It‘s an essential but subtle way to enhance the polish and professionalism of any WordPress site.

In this comprehensive guide, I‘ll share everything I‘ve learned about crafting ideal line spacing for web content.

By the end, you‘ll have expert-level knowledge to fine-tune line breaks and spacing in WordPress for your perfect reading experience.

Why Line Spacing Matters for Readability

Before we dive into the how-to, let‘s briefly cover why line spacing deserves your attention, especially in WordPress.

The truth is most people don‘t consciously notice line spacing. But it has a big influence on reading comfort and flow.

As a Nielsen Norman Group eye tracking study found, short line lengths are overwhelmingly preferred by users for readability. Wider lines cause the eye to fatigue quicker.

But with shorter lines, there needs to be sufficient spacing between lines. Otherwise, the text becomes too crowded and dense.

According to typography experts, the ideal line height is around 1.5 to 1.8 times the font size. This ensures clear distinction between adjacent lines.

With insufficient line spacing, lines blend together into a blob of text.

Excessive spacing also hinders readability. Studies suggest keeping line height below 2.1 times font size.

Based on my experience, the optimal paragraph spacing for most web content is around 1.5 to 2 em or 20-40 pixels. This prevents paragraphs from feeling disjointed.

💡 Pro Tip: Line height between 1.6 to 1.8 em is considered the gold standard for most sites. But you should adjust based on font sizes.

These may sound like minor details. But typographic elements like line spacing collectively create a comfortable reading experience.

This allows readers to focus on your content instead of being distracted by hard-to-read text.

Now you might be wondering…

Why Does Line Spacing Matter Specifically in WordPress?

Line spacing has an outsized impact for WordPress sites for a few reasons:

1. Web writing tends to use longer lines

Print books and magazines often have narrow columns with shorter line lengths. This naturally allows more spacing between lines.

But online content typically has wider line lengths for better efficiency. This makes sufficient line spacing even more imperative.

2. The block editor condenses spacing

WordPress‘s block editor condenses spacing between blocks to save real estate. The minimal spacing can make paragraphs feel tight.

3. Themes control default spacing

Each theme has CSS that controls default line height and paragraph spacing. This may or may not match your ideal text settings.

4. Paragraph and line breaks get messy in WordPress

With multiple editors adding content, extra line breaks get added in WordPress. This can create unintended gaps if not cleaned up.

5. Short paragraphs need clearer separation

Web writing tends to use shorter paragraphs. The shorter content needs adequate line spacing to differentiate paragraphs.

See what I mean? WordPress introduces several line spacing challenges. But a seasoned webmaster like myself knows exactly how to tackle them.

Next I‘ll cover simple ways to add healthy line spacing in WordPress for enhanced readability.

Adding Line Breaks in WordPress Editor

The easiest way to add more line spacing is by inserting line breaks in the WordPress editor.

Line and paragraph breaks are the quickest way to add whitespace without adjusting fonts or CSS. Let‘s take a look at how to add them.

Paragraph Break

To add a full paragraph break for double line spacing, hit Return or Enter on your keyboard.

This will create a new block and a blank line between paragraphs.

Line Break

To add a line break within a paragraph, hold the Shift key and hit Return/Enter.

This inserts a <br> tag for a single line break while maintaining paragraph line spacing.

See Line Breaks Instantly

The WordPress editor clearly shows line and paragraph breaks. Toggling between Visual and Text editor helps inspect them.

Line breaks added here will be preserved when content is published.

💡 Pro Tip: Use line breaks sparingly within paragraphs. Too many makes text disjointed. Aim for 3-4 lines per paragraph maximum.

Controlling Line Spacing with HTML

For more fine-grained control, you can manually set line spacing using HTML tags and styles.

Let‘s go over the HTML elements that influence line height and spacing.

Paragraph Tag

The HTML paragraph tag <p> creates a new block with paragraph spacing.

<p>First paragraph</p>

<p>Second paragraph</p> 

This renders two paragraphs with default theme spacing.

Line Break Tag

The line break tag <br> inserts a single line break within a paragraph.

<p>This paragraph has a <br>line break.</p>

Paragraph Styling

You can set the line height css property on the <p> tag:

<p style="line-height: 1.6">Paragraph with 1.6 line spacing</p>

This sets the line height as a multiplier of the text size.

Experiment with values like 1.2, 1.5, 2, etc. to find the optimal spacing.

Margins and Padding

Adding margin or padding is another way to control space between paragraphs and lines:

p {
  margin-bottom: 20px; /* Space below paragraphs */
} 

p {
  padding-bottom: 5px; /* Space between lines */  
}

I suggest starting with 10-20px bottom margins or 5-10px bottom padding. Adjust until satisfied!

💡 Pro Tip: For consistency, set line height on the body tag and spacing on p tags. This avoids affecting inline text elements.

Adjusting Line Spacing in WordPress Themes

Even if the editor shows perfect spacing, your published paragraphs may look too tight or loose.

This happens because your theme controls default line height and paragraph styling.

Here are a few ways to override the theme‘s spacing:

Using the Customizer

You can add CSS to the WordPress Customizer under Appearance → Customize:

1. Go to Additional CSS

2. Add overrides like:

   .entry-content p {  
     line-height: 1.6;
     margin-bottom: 20px;
   }

Targeting .entry-content avoids affecting global styling.

Using a Plugin

A visual CSS plugin like CSS Hero lets you customize spacing without coding.

I also recommend WP Page Spacing Control for easy paragraph margin control.

Editing Theme Files (Advanced)

You can directly edit the theme‘s style.css file to change spacing globally. But this affects all paragraphs and requires expertise with CSS specificity and overrides.

I suggest tweaking the editor or using CSS overrides instead for more control.

Removing Excess Line Spacing in WordPress

Sometimes you‘ll need to decrease or tighten line spacing instead. Here are a few tricks I use:

Remove Unnecessary Paragraph Tags

Extra <p> tags are a common cause of too much spacing. Switch to Text view and remove redundant tags.

Negative Margins

Counter the theme‘s bottom margin like:

p {
  margin-bottom: -10px; 
}

Start with -5px or -10px and adjust from there.

Reduce Line Height

Lower the line height multiplier instead of fully removing:

p {
  line-height: 1.2;
} 

Reset Styles

Completely reset paragraph styling:

p {
  margin: 0;
  padding: 0;
  line-height: normal;
}

This clears any inherited theme spacing rules.

💡 Pro Tip: Try not to completely remove all spacing. Some line height variation improves readability.

Controlling Line Breaks in Specific Blocks

So far we‘ve focused on sitewide paragraph spacing. But you may want to customize line breaks for specific blocks.

Let‘s go over some examples of dialing in spacing for individual block types.

Titles and Headings

Reduce spacing around titles for a tighter look:

h1, h2, h3 {
  margin-top: 0; 
  margin-bottom: 10px;
}

Or increase for more impact:

h1, h2, h3 {
  margin-top: 40px;
  margin-bottom: 30px;   
}

Lists

Decrease vertical space in bullet point lists:

.entry-content ul li {
  margin-bottom: 5px;
}

Tighter spacing makes long lists more compact.

Blockquotes

Control spacing before and after blockquote blocks:

.wp-block-quote {
  margin-top: 20px;
  margin-bottom: 20px;
}

Code Blocks

Add breathing room around code for readability:

.wp-block-code {
  margin-top: 15px; 
  margin-bottom: 15px;
}

This helps differentiate code from other text.

The same principles apply for targeting any block tags in the editor.

Ideal Line Length for Readability

Now that we‘ve covered line spacing, let‘s briefly discuss line length.

Line length goes hand in hand with line height for readability.

The optimal line length is around 50-75 characters per line.

Narrow column widths around 500 pixels are ideal for web writing.

With wider lines, the eye has to travel farther left-to-right causing fatigue. Narrower columns improve reading comfort.

However, paragraphs shouldn‘t be too narrow either. Very short line lengths under 35 characters makes reading choppy.

💡 Pro Tip: For longform writing, consider setting a max-width on the content container. 500-600px allows flexible multiline viewports.

This improves readability at wider desktop sizes while still reflowing responsively for mobile.

Final Thoughts on Dialing in Line Spacing

Hopefully this guide provided ample tips and best practices for optimizing line spacing in WordPress.

While it may seem intricate, you‘ll get the hang of adjusting breaks and spacing with a bit of practice.

Perfectly tuned typography makes a world of difference. It‘s one of the best ways to elevate the polish of any WordPress site.

The difference between lousy and lovely line spacing is just a few CSS tweaks away.

I‘m confident you now have all the expertise to fine-tune line height for optimal online readability.

So try out some of these line spacing techniques and let me know if you have any other questions!