[Tex/LaTex] amsmath align environment: row spacing

Question

How can I stretch the spacing between consecutive lines in an align* environment? I have a few lines with \fracs in which both the numerator and the denominator consist of textual phrases, not math symbols, and the result looks too cluttered.

\begin{align*}
X &= \frac{\textit{Some text here}}{\textit{And some text here}}\\
Y &= \frac{\textit{Will make everything}}{\textit{Look too close together}}
\end{align*}

Answer 1

You could add space manually like so:

\begin{align*}
X &= \frac{\textit{Some text here}}{\textit{And some text here}}\\[1em]
Y &= \frac{\textit{Will make everything}}{\textit{Look too close together}}
\end{align*}

change [1em] to suit how much space you want.

Thanks to Ian Thompson in the comments for pointing me to this slightly more elegant solution. If you want to add a little extra spacing to every row of an align:

\begingroup
\addtolength{\jot}{1em}
\begin{align*}
X &= \frac{\textit{Some text here}}{\textit{And some text here}}\\
Y &= \frac{\textit{Will make everything}}{\textit{Look too close together}}
\end{align*}
\endgroup

The \begingroup and \endgroup are to keep the extra alignment local to the environment. If you want all align environments to have the extra spacing, add \addtolength{\jot}{1em} to your preamble instead.