Leader (typography)

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A table of contents with the leaders highlighted in green

A leader in typography is a series of characters, usually lines of dots or dashes, that are used as a visual aid to connect items on a page that might be separated by considerable horizontal distance. For example, dot leaders are often used in tables of contents to connect section headings with the page numbers on which those sections begin.[1]

Most word processingsoftware includes a feature for the automatic generation of dot leaders.[2]

This word is pronounced /ˈliːdər/LEED-ər, like the everyday word "leader" (person who leads), unlike the typographical term leading (/ˈlɛdɪŋ/LED-ing), which refers to the use of the metal lead.

In Typesetting

In conventional typesetting (metal, photosetting, and digital composition before PostScript), the en leader character—a period glyph horizontally centered within the set width of an en space—was commonly used to produce an ellipsis or (sometimes with added space) a leader line as in tabular matter such as a table of contents.

In Unicode

Although manual dot leaders are often represented as a series of periods, there are at least three Unicode characters dedicated to the representation of dot leaders. These are U+2024․ONE DOT LEADER, U+2025‥TWO DOT LEADER, and U+2026…HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS, a three dot leader.[3]

Unicode lacks an en leader.

References

  1. ↑Felici, Jim (2011). The Complete Manual of Typography: A Guide to Setting Perfect Type. Peachpit Press. pp. 225ff. ISBN 978-0-321-77326-5.
  2. ↑"Thesis and Dissertation Manual". Howard University: The Graduate School. October 2008. Archived from the original on 2018-10-12.
  3. ↑Constable, Peter (2003-06-02). "Character Stories: U+2024 ONE DOT LEADER". NRSI: Computers & Writing Systems. Archived from the original on 2013-09-27.