There are letter pairings that are tricky to begin with, such as capitals followed by a lowercase, or straight edges next to slanted or curved edges (ex: ‘lo’ or ‘VA’). Take note of common problematic pairs/letters. Zoom in when you’re working so you can check how each letter or pair is supposed to appear.Ģ. Kerning isn’t about mathematically equal spaces, but rather, perceived spaces that look aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Practice visualizing space between letters. Aside from doing the nitty gritty work, you can always try these tips to make sure you’re getting the most out of your everyday exercises:ġ. Kerning, tracking, spacing, and leading can feel overwhelming, especially for young or inexperienced designers. When used together, they can make your final product look polished and precise.īasic Tips for Applying Spacing and Kerning When performed properly, this can make paragraphs look easy on the eyes while avoiding those awkward crashes between descenders (that part of the letter that extends below the baseline, as in ‘g’ and ‘y’) and tittles (the dots above lowercase ‘j’ and ‘i’). Leading, or line-spacing, is fixing the distance or space between two baselines or lines of text. It helps remove that extra word at the end of a paragraph (known as a widow) or that awkward one at the top (called an orphan), which should’ve been still part of a previous page. Decreasing tracking means more compacted text, so some words may not appear readable anymore.ĭesigners use tracking to enhance paragraphs or lines of text, usually for books, brochures, or presentations.
Increased tracking means more ‘breathing space’ between letters so texts appear wider. Tracking, or letter-spacing, is adjusting the space uniformly over a range of characters (as opposed to individuals or pairs in kerning). Understanding how each one works will only benefit you as a future typographer. While the differences may be subtle, they don’t refer to the same thing. The internet is filled with bad kerning examples – and the results are hilarious!ĭon’t confuse kerning with tracking or leading.
If some letters are too close or farther apart, it could result in a totally different meaning. Using the kerning process, you can fix that to make the overall word look more visually appealing. For example: in the word ‘AVATAR’ you may notice that the pair ‘A’ and ‘R’ are too close together. This is something you need to correct based on necessity so this one is highly subjective. Kerning on the other hand, refers to the whitespace between specific pairs of characters. In general, the straighter the side of the glyph (as in the letters ‘H’ and ‘l’), the greater the sidebearing. These values of whitespace are called ‘sidebearings’. Let’s begin with terms: spacing refers to the amount of whitespace on either side of a glyph (elemental symbol intended to represent a readable character). Still, this is a foundation of knowledge you can’t miss out on, particularly if you’re interested in a design career. After all, kerning and spacing are hardly creative in nature. So it’s common for them to feel bored when presented with facts and figures pertaining to type. This can be fixed with a few clicks today.īudding designers usually learn on the job. When placed side by side, you may notice either too much or too little space. When you look at type, imagine an ‘invisible box’ surrounding it, representing the old wooden or metal blocks. While we don’t use the same process today, the concept remains more or less the same. So if a typesetter wanted less spacing between them, he might sometimes shave a bit off the sides to make the letters fit closer together. These are then put onto the press, inked, then placed under the platen to create an impression on paper.Įach character would seem ‘boxed’, surrounded by the shape of the wooden or metal block where it was carved. The typesetter would pick a sort then place it on the composing stick, arranging the letters from left to right. Much like stamping, there would usually be one letter or character per block (these are called sorts in the mechanical system). This can require two or more different kinds of fonts, depending on the design. In the olden days of print publishing, typesetting was an important process where metal or wooden blocks were arranged to form words, lines, and paragraphs. But why is this a big deal? And if you’re a typographer, why should you bother learning the basics?
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