How to use negative line spacing (again)?

rse · October 3, 2019, 7:38am

I’m sure in older versions of OmniGraffle (version 5 or 6?) I was able to use NEGATIVE line spacing for text in order to reduce the optical gap between subsequent lines of text. At least, I’ve still some OmniGraffle diagrams at hand, when opened in my current OmniGraffle 7.11.3, which STILL HAS this negative spacing. For those text or rectangular objects I today see “–” for the line spacing in the inspector, but at least optically the line spacing is still reduced.

Once I enter “0” for line spacing (the smallest number one is able to enter in OmniGraffle 7 as it looks), the line gap grows again and after this step I never can reduce the optical line spacing again in any way. Seems like the current OmniGraffle no longer accepts negative line spacing values. Do I miss something? If not via “line spacing”, how can I reduce again the optical gap between subsequent lines in a text object? The alternative of using multiple text objects (one for each line) is really not an option for me, as I want wrapping lines, etc.

macfreek · May 14, 2026, 9:17am

(I know I’m responding to an almost decade old thread, but I had the same issue and can’t remember the solution. This was the first result when searching, so when I forget the solution, I’m sure I’ll end up back here. Hi, future me!)

OmniGraffle 7 does not seem to allow negative line spacing in the inspector:

However, there is an alternative!

First of all, make sure that “Rulers” is enabled in the Views menu:

Now, if you select text, a ruler bar will appear at the top of the window (just below the tool icons), which contains a “Spacing” popup menu:

Select “Other…” and now a window opens where you can set the line height. E.g. to 0.8 instead of 1.0 (or to an exact number of points if you prefer):

Hope this helps!

GraffleGuru · May 14, 2026, 5:34pm

Kerning is the white space between characters in the selected string of text.

(There is no such thing as Kerning that reduces/increases the space between lines.)
there is another quantity field with up-down arrows (below your red rectangle) to change the Kerning
Select some text
Turn Auto-Kern off (as in your graphic),
the arrows change the value in integers, which is way too much, but you can type smaller values such as [ -.1 to -.3 ].

LineSpacing is the white space between lines of selected text.

(There is no such thing as “negative line spacing”, it can be reduced or increased, not negated.)
OG has provided LineSpacing manipulation since OG 4, exactly as you have detailed, in the Ruler/Spacing field which pops up a dialogue, etc.
It is unchanged in OG 7
It is not an alternative, it is the only way.

Separately, regarding the field that you have highlit (red rectangle)

the icon is stupid
it does not work
its function is unknown
the product is great but unfortunately full of bugs

Cheers