If your base gutter is 12, the next step might be 18 or 24. You can also employ units with padding as you mentioned. To keep a well organized grid, you can set the type in some kind of container that adheres to the base grid with the type inset by a unit or two or three.
Updated for January 12, 2017 (Toddlers) patch. Pose Player. This is a mod that will add the option to play poses and animations in game. It adds an interaction to your sims called Pose By Name and Pose By Pack. Just click on your sim like you would to do anything else.
The noun POSER has 3 senses: 1. a person who habitually pretends to be something he is not. 2. a person who poses for a photographer or painter or sculptor. 3. a particularly difficult or baffling question or problem. Familiarity information: POSER used as a noun is uncommon.