text: Set line spacing to 'normal' by default

QuLogic · QuLogic · commit d961462910d4 · 2026-03-20T15:03:04.000-04:00
This follows from CSS' default for line height. At the moment, the
behaviour has not been changed, and still just falls back to 1.2 for
'normal'.
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/text.py b/lib/matplotlib/text.py
@@ -241,7 +241,7 @@ def _reset_visual_defaults(
         self._bbox_patch = None  # a FancyBboxPatch instance
         self._renderer = None
         if linespacing is None:
-            linespacing = 1.2  # Maybe use rcParam later.
+            linespacing = 'normal'  # Maybe use rcParam later.
         self.set_linespacing(linespacing)
         self.set_rotation_mode(rotation_mode)
         self.set_antialiased(mpl._val_or_rc(antialiased, 'text.antialiased'))
@@ -439,7 +439,8 @@ def _get_layout(self, renderer):
             ismath="TeX" if self.get_usetex() else False,
             dpi=self.get_figure(root=True).dpi)
         lp_a = lp_h - lp_d
-        min_dy = lp_a * self._linespacing
+        linespacing = 1.2 if self._linespacing == 'normal' else self._linespacing
+        min_dy = lp_a * linespacing
 
         for i, line in enumerate(lines):
             clean_line, ismath = self._preprocess_math(line)
@@ -462,7 +463,7 @@ def _get_layout(self, renderer):
             if i == 0:  # position at baseline
                 thisy = -a
             else:  # put baseline a good distance from bottom of previous line
-                thisy -= max(min_dy, a * self._linespacing)
+                thisy -= max(min_dy, a * linespacing)
 
             wads.append((w, a, d))
             xs.append(thisx)  # == 0.
@@ -1122,18 +1123,26 @@ def set_multialignment(self, align):
 
     def set_linespacing(self, spacing):
         """
-        Set the line spacing as a multiple of the font size.
-
-        The default line spacing is 1.2.
+        Set the line spacing.
 
         Parameters
         ----------
-        spacing : float (multiple of font size)
+        spacing : 'normal' or float, default: 'normal'
+            If 'normal', then the line spacing is automatically determined by font
+            metrics for each line individually.
+
+            If a float, then line spacing will be fixed to this multiple of the font
+            size for every line.
         """
-        _api.check_isinstance(Real, spacing=spacing)
+        if not cbook._str_equal(spacing, 'normal'):
+            _api.check_isinstance(Real, spacing=spacing)
         self._linespacing = spacing
         self.stale = True
 
+    def get_linespacing(self):
+        """Get the line spacing."""
+        return self._linespacing
+
     def set_fontfamily(self, fontname):
         """
         Set the font family.  Can be either a single string, or a list of
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/text.pyi b/lib/matplotlib/text.pyi
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ class Text(Artist):
         multialignment: Literal["left", "center", "right"] | None = ...,
         fontproperties: str | Path | FontProperties | None = ...,
         rotation: float | Literal["vertical", "horizontal"] | None = ...,
-        linespacing: float | None = ...,
+        linespacing: Literal["normal"] | float | None = ...,
         rotation_mode: Literal["default", "anchor"] | None = ...,
         usetex: bool | None = ...,
         wrap: bool = ...,
@@ -79,7 +79,8 @@ class Text(Artist):
         self, align: Literal["left", "center", "right"]
     ) -> None: ...
     def set_multialignment(self, align: Literal["left", "center", "right"]) -> None: ...
-    def set_linespacing(self, spacing: float) -> None: ...
+    def set_linespacing(self, spacing: Literal["normal"] | float) -> None: ...
+    def get_linespacing(self) -> Literal["normal"] | float: ...
     def set_fontfamily(self, fontname: str | Iterable[str]) -> None: ...
     def set_fontfeatures(self, features: Sequence[str] | None) -> None: ...
     def set_fontvariant(self, variant: Literal["normal", "small-caps"]) -> None: ...
