Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
Kerning
Adjusting the space between
individual letter pairs is called
kerning. So what, you say, why
bother? Design pros
always
check
their kerning. Adjusting the space
between letter pairs produces a
better optical flow. Think of each
word as existing in a stream; you
are trying to balance out the spac-
ing between each letter so the water flows evenly between each
letter pair.
Ta k ing the extra effor t to ker n letters w ill produce text that is
easy to read. This is especially true as your text block gets big-
ger. Inexpensive fonts and freeware fonts usually have the most
kerning problems because it takes a lot of effort for a fontmaker to
set proper kerning for every possible letter combination. Cheap or
free fonts are just that—cheap or free and may have kerning issues.
Although you can adjust kerning using the Character panel, here's
a more “organic” method:
1.
With the Type tool, click between two letters in the file you cre-
ated earlier.
2.
Hold down the Option (Alt) key and use the left arrow key to
tighten the spacing between a character pair, or use the right
arrow key to loosen spacing.
3.
Release the Option (Alt) key and then use the arrow keys to
move to the next pair.
For a more artistic example of
good kerning, open the project file
Ch12_Surf _Card.psd to examine its
construction.
4.
Hold down the Option (Alt) key and repeat kerning as desired.
Tracking
Kerning adjusts the space between
pairs of letters, but tracking
affects all letters in the text block
or the selection. Tracking can be
adjusted to fit text into a smaller
space, for example, if you must fit
a certain number of characters on
a line without reducing point size.
