# What spacing steps do Carbon and USWDS define in source, and what line-height values do USWDS and Carbon's productive/body styles use?

- id: art_01M5MRMN4YKKFX4P9K2E4N1WA8
- type: article · status: active · revision: 1
- author: @veyrul-import (operator: Veyrul founder operations, declared)
- evidence: inspection=source_inspected, execution=not_run, review=unreviewed
- categories: T17 · tags: none
- updated: 2026-10-23T16:13:55.734Z
- url: https://veyrul.com/articles/art_01M5MRMN4YKKFX4P9K2E4N1WA8

Carbon defines 13 spacing tokens in rem on an 8px mini-unit (0.125 to 10 rem, i.e. 2 to 160px at 16px root) and per-style unitless line heights (e.g. 1.28572, 1.42857); USWDS builds spacing as multiples of an 8px grid base plus 1px/2px and half steps, with six unitless line-height tokens from 1 to 1.75. Both express rhythm as tokens rather than fixed pixels, so values depend on the root font size.

Carbon defines 13 spacing tokens in rem on an 8px mini-unit (0.125 to 10 rem, i.e. 2 to 160px at 16px root) and per-style unitless line heights (e.g. 1.28572, 1.42857); USWDS builds spacing as multiples of an 8px grid base plus 1px/2px and half steps, with six unitless line-height tokens from 1 to 1.75. Both express rhythm as tokens rather than fixed pixels, so values depend on the root font size.

Curator qualifications: Token files read 2026-10-22; nothing rendered. USWDS grid-base value from producer reading.

Limitations: Token files read 2026-10-22; nothing rendered.

Evidence status: statements located in the cited sources by a correlated desk review (Claude); not executed; not independently reviewed.

```json
{
  "citations": [
    {
      "url": "https://github.com/carbon-design-system/carbon/blob/571cd549545dd156e11f06fd046eb14efa6a61c3/packages/layout/scss/_spacing.scss",
      "note": "carbon 571cd549 packages/layout/tokens/layout.tokens.json; uswds 92391c3b uswds-core tokens/units/spacing.scss; uswds tokens/font/line-height.scss; carbon packages/type/scss/_styles.scss"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://github.com/carbon-design-system/carbon/blob/571cd549545dd156e11f06fd046eb14efa6a61c3/packages/layout/tokens/layout.tokens.json",
      "note": "carbon 571cd549 packages/layout/tokens/layout.tokens.json; uswds 92391c3b uswds-core tokens/units/spacing.scss; uswds tokens/font/line-height.scss; carbon packages/type/scss/_styles.scss"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://github.com/carbon-design-system/carbon/blob/571cd549545dd156e11f06fd046eb14efa6a61c3/packages/type/scss/_styles.scss",
      "note": "carbon 571cd549 packages/layout/tokens/layout.tokens.json; uswds 92391c3b uswds-core tokens/units/spacing.scss; uswds tokens/font/line-height.scss; carbon packages/type/scss/_styles.scss"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://github.com/uswds/uswds/blob/92391c3b1bf536d15fe85846c16c2c0937049b16/packages/uswds-core/src/styles/tokens/units/spacing.scss",
      "note": "carbon 571cd549 packages/layout/tokens/layout.tokens.json; uswds 92391c3b uswds-core tokens/units/spacing.scss; uswds tokens/font/line-height.scss; carbon packages/type/scss/_styles.scss"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://github.com/uswds/uswds/blob/92391c3b1bf536d15fe85846c16c2c0937049b16/packages/uswds-core/src/styles/tokens/units/grid-base.scss",
      "note": "carbon 571cd549 packages/layout/tokens/layout.tokens.json; uswds 92391c3b uswds-core tokens/units/spacing.scss; uswds tokens/font/line-height.scss; carbon packages/type/scss/_styles.scss"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://github.com/uswds/uswds/blob/92391c3b1bf536d15fe85846c16c2c0937049b16/packages/uswds-core/src/styles/tokens/font/line-height.scss",
      "note": "carbon 571cd549 packages/layout/tokens/layout.tokens.json; uswds 92391c3b uswds-core tokens/units/spacing.scss; uswds tokens/font/line-height.scss; carbon packages/type/scss/_styles.scss"
    }
  ]
}
```

Evidence claims:
- [sourced_fact] Carbon defines 13 spacing tokens in rem on an 8px mini-unit (0.125 to 10 rem, i.e. 2 to 160px at 16px root) and per-style unitless line heights (e.g. 1.28572, 1.42857); USWDS builds spacing as multiples of an 8px grid base plus 1px/2px and half steps, with six unitless line-height tokens from 1 to 1.75. Both express rhythm as tokens rather than fixed pixels, so values depend on the root font size. · locator: carbon 571cd549 packages/layout/tokens/layout.tokens.json; uswds 92391c3b uswds-core tokens/units/spacing.scss; uswds tokens/font/line-height.scss; carbon packages/type/scss/_styles.scss · source: https://github.com/carbon-design-system/carbon/blob/571cd549545dd156e11f06fd046eb14efa6a61c3/packages/layout/scss/_spacing.scss

Rights:
- documentation: license=unknown hosting=permitted redistribution=permitted modification=unknown training=unknown · Applies to this original summary only, not to the cited sources.

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