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“Fix the kerning... Make the paragraph fit somehow —

no hanging words!!!”

“Increase or decrease the tracking... fix that widow!”

?

“Fix the kerning... Make the paragraph fit somehow —

no hanging words!!!”

“Increase or decrease the tracking... fix that widow!”

?What is Kerning

How is it different from Tracking?

?What is Kerning

Selectively reducing the space between certain characters, while leaving the rest of the characters the same, is called kerning. When used with care and good taste, kerning can greatly improve letter fit and the overall evenness and legibility of a line of type, especially display type.

— Basic Typography A Design Manual by James Craig; (Formerly Phototypesetting: A Design Manual) Kerning is targeted.

It adjusts the spaces between specifc letter pairs to adjust anomalies in spacing created by the shapes of the two letters, which can make the characters look too far apart or too close together.

From archaic French word ‘carne’, which

means “corner”

?What is Kerning

How is it different from Tracking?

Kerning is targeted.

It adjusts the spaces between specifc letter pairs to adjust anomalies in spacing created by the shapes of the two letters, which can make the characters look too far apart or too close together.

Tracking is generalized.

Uniformly affects the spacing between all the characters in a range of text.

Tracking is normally adjusted to compensate for spacing problems caused by changes in point size. It is also used to adjust badly spaced passages of text.

?What is Kerning

How is it different from Tracking?

Kerning is targeted.

It adjusts the spaces between specifc letter pairs to adjust anomalies in spacing created by the shapes of the two letters, which can make the characters look too far apart or too close together.

Tracking is generalized.

Uniformly affects the spacing between all the characters in a range of text.

Tracking is normally adjusted to compensate for spacing problems caused by changes in point size. It is also used to adjust badly spaced passages of text.

Far far away, behind the word mountains, far from the countries Vokalia and Consonantia, there live the blind texts. Separated they live in Bookmarksgrove right at the coast of the Semantics, a large language ocean. A small river named Duden flows by their place and supplies it with the necessary

Far far away, behind the word mountains, far from the countries Vokalia and Consonantia, there live the blind texts. Separated they live in Bookmarksgrove right at the coast of the Semantics, a large language ocean. A small river named Duden flows by their place and supplies it with the necessary

Tow.Av

Tow.Av

Tow.Av

Unkerned Table-based Kerned

Tight Tracking

Loose Tracking

Why is Kerning important?Why is Kerning important?Why is Kerning important?

Done automatically in text composed by a page layout or typesetting program

Adjustments in spacing are based on kerning tables built into the fonts.

The spacing adjustments—expressed in fractions of an ‘em’, usually 1/1000 em

Kerning values are usually negative numbers - the space between has to be reduced.

positive values, intended to push certain pairs of characters farther apart.

High-quality fonts contain 500 —1,000 kern pairs

The values assigned - defined by the typeface designers

Kerning and TypesizeAs type increases in size, for e.g., on posters and signage, the more space may need to be taken out. In newspaper headlines for example, the settings are normally tighter in relation to type size than in the body copy.

There is also a tendency when type is reproduced at large size for the type to almost split into two parts. this can be altered manually but if you have an entire book to set then automatic kerning tables can be used.

- The Fundamentals of Typography; Gavin Ambrose/ Paul Harris

What are Kerning Pairs?

Awful VoicesAwful VoicesAwful Voices

Unkerned

Table-based

Kerned

Kern pairs contain information about the spacing of specific ‘pairs’ of letters.

LA, P., To, Tr, Ta, Tu, Te, Ty, Wa, WA, We, Wo, Ya, Yo, AV, KO, f.

LA, P., To, Tr, Ta, Tu, Te, Ty, Wa, WA, We, Wo, Ya, Yo, AV, KO, f.

KernedUnkerned

Kerning Pairs The number of letter pairs that can be created from a typeface containing 228 characters would run into the tens of thousands (51,984, to be exact).

Kerning TablesEditing

Quark’s Kerning Table Editor FontLab’s Kerning Table Editor

Why is Kerning important?Manual

No matter how extensive a font’s kerning table may be, unlisted pairs that need kerning adjustments will occur.

kerning in thousandth of an em

Why is Kerning important?Manual

No matter how extensive a font’s kerning table may be, unlisted pairs that need kerning adjustments will occur.

To see type well enough onscreen to kern it effectively, you need to zoom in.

The closer you zoom in, the clearer the vision you have of the type and space.

Figure out the key pair, go on kerning the others.

Don’t panic, keep calm and move on

You can’t kern by numbers. You can only kern by what looks right.

Not to do anything until the text has under-gone its final tracking adjustments.

strategies

kerning in thousandth of an em

Why is Kerning important?Numerals

Company Lost Nearly$110 Million in 2001

Company Lost Nearly$110 Million in 2001

numerals are lining figures with the same character width, and this works fine for nine of them.

Only few fonts offer kerning numerals

Old-style numerals in some fonts have unique character widths and may kern.

Most of them in OpenType format

1 is clearly narrower than the others

kerning numerals are referred to as proportional figures.

http://type.method.ac/#

Kerning is learning!

Honour thy kerning, so that white space becomes visually equalized between characters.

Fifth Commandment

Paul Felton, The Ten Commandments of Typography

ReferencesBookS

The Ten Commandments of Typography, Paul Felton

Basic Typography A Design Manual; Formerly Phototypesetting: A Design Manual - by James Craig

The Fundamentals of typography; Gavin Ambrose/ Paul Harris

Type in Detail

Internet

Design Fundamentals: Kerning and Tracking Adapted from The Complete Manual of Typography: A Guide to Setting Perfect Type, 2nd Edition (Adobe Press) - By Jim Felici http://www.graphics.com/modules.php?artid=970&name=Sections&op=viewarticle

InDesign / Kerning and tracking http://help.adobe.com/en_US/indesign/cs/using/WSa285fff53dea4f8617383751001ea8cb3f-6e14a.html

SEP 15 2007 ILT Investigates: type torture KERN BABY KERNhttp://ilovetypography.com/2007/09/15/type-torture-kerning/

How to Set Kerning Pairs Up In FontLab; Published on Apr 3rd, 2011 - Written By: Bill Ross categorized in Web Design Researchhttp://www.linchpinseo.com/how-to-set-kerning-pairs-up-in-fontlab

Please Mind

the Gap

Kerning is not Tracking