What it means
Leading (rhymes with heading) is line spacing: the distance from the baseline of one line to the baseline of the next. The name comes from metal type, where compositors slid strips of lead between lines to open them up. It is written with the type size as a fraction — 11/14 means 11-point type on 14 points of leading.
For continuous reading, leading of roughly 120–145% of the type size works: 10/13, 11/14, 12/15. Too tight and the lines crowd, the eye doubles back, and descenders touch ascenders; too loose and the paragraph falls apart into separate lines. Long lines need more leading than short ones, and faces with a large x-height need more than faces with a small one.
Leading also sets the book's page count. Moving a 300-page novel from 11/14 to 11/15 adds about 20 pages, which is one reason typesetters adjust it — within limits — to reach a page count that fits the binding.
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