member of @staff, lapsed linguist and drummer, electronics hobbyist
zip's bf
no supervisor but ludd means the threads any good
the complement of tracking (i.e. vertical spacing instead of horizontal) is called leading — not pronounced like “leading lady,” but the other way.
why is it pronounced like that? because in the days of physical typesetting, that was how wide the lead1 shim they had to insert between lines would have been
why lead? presumably because you could cut it to size with hand tools, and then, when it ran out, have someone melt and recast some fresh leading out of the scrap with simple equipment
hahaha perfect. by which I mean, thank you for warning me of these dangers
“Text itself has tracking built in” feels like it has similar energy to “powered by AI” like what does that mean lmao
Unfortunately when people say the latter it isn’t as a joke
gotta love a homonym where the the wrong pronunciation seems more intuitive (i.e., you'd assume it was "lee-ding" because the vertical space "leads" in front of the lines) and you'd only know the right one if you know the mechanical history of the printing press that is now completely divorced from typography practices that still use the same centuries-old terminology
I had no idea about the pronunciation of leading, but I know that’s why font companies are called foundries - they’re named after the process of casting lead into letters
