Kerning

[QUOTE=beretgascon;429485]...the mystical world of kerning...


Kerning and indeed tracking and leading are not really that recondite a subject.
Kerning allows the adjustment of the spacing between 2 neighbouring characters, especially those that do not have vertical lines, for example 7 W, which often have a gap between them far greater that between upright characters such as N E, which is different depending which font is used.
Those of you who use Illustrator will recognise this screenshot from the font panel.
You will notice that they use the AV example in their icons for kerning and tracking.
By the by, it wrankles somewhat that Designer uses the terms tracking and kerning, but does not maintain this accuracy by refering to line spacing rather than the correct term - leading.
By the way, Frank, I think that the subject of fonts and other matters typographical warrants a forum of its own, being at least as relevant as 3D, for example.
Bob.

Just a bit of history for you about the term leading this is an old term that goes back to printing presses that used lead type. Perhaps Xara have decided that line spacing which is what it really is, gives a more modern term to the feature?

I like the idea of a font forum, but I think we will have to wait.

The red version of the letter f has been repeated and after hitting the carriage return key, it lands directly beneath the original (see attached). In this instance, have I created two lines of text? I think not. So, if you examine the blue version, have I altered the leading or the line spacing compared to that of the red version? Given that a single letter can hardly constitute a line of text, then I must have altered the leading between the two characters.

All that Xara has done is to muddy the waters by increasing the confusion about the terms leading, kerning and tracking by introducing a new term. Also because of this, a link with the etymology of the printing world has been severed and in time the terms applied to how type is manipulated by referring to how it was done since the invention of the printing press will become quite meaningless. I appreciate that we have more or less said goodbye to the physical lead slugs that were used to accomplish what Xara refers to as “line spacing” but at least Adobe and Quark Express have kept that link with printing heritage.
Bob.
ps; Also, I don't like the way that the TG forum treats new paragraphs, I typed an indent at the beginning of the two paragraphs here, but they don't show for some reason. So I have resorted to a line space:)

Ah, and this can migrate or branch our discussion here to Desktop Publishing "guidelines" for paragraphs.

I was taught that you can either indent a new paragraph, or use paragraph spacing, but not both. And yet I see this all the time on the web, not so often in print because editors are fussy about this.

Oh, here's an onscreen kerning game, I'm serious!

Interactive kerning: The Online Game

My Best,

—Gary

That's a great link Gary - a kerning game
Simple but lots of fun!

Tip: Try harder at the start. Because by the time you get into it, you've already done a few and maybe messed them up!
It's fun but the competitive side of you may just come out.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rik

That's a great link Gary - a kerning game
Simple but lots of fun!

Tip: Try harder at the start. Because by the time you get into it, you've already done a few and maybe messed them up!
It's fun but the competitive side of you may just come out.

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I totally agree with that. I tried it and it is fun.

Well, aside from therapy, I think it's terrific that vernacular is explained by example on the Web.

-g-

I was told that in Spain kerning of text is never used. Is that really correct?
Regards.

Hi, Degn, and welcome to TalkGraphics—

This sounds as though someone had a few too many beers and was trying to start a rumor, beginning with you. Spain has over 100 newspapers alone (over 5,000) and if you conduct a search online for less than 5 minutes, as I just did, clearly Spanish publications use kerning in their text.

In the digital age, how can you not use kerning? I don't know of a simple way to "turn off" kerning in a font, not with Adobe programs, not with Xara, and I'd venture that the vast majority of professional fonts you buy today come with kerning pairs coded into the typeface.

I really should let one of our Spanish members here on tg answer this question, but it seemed so completely off-the-wall I wanted to jump in here first.

Degn? Don't believe everything you're told!

My Best,

Gary

My Best,

Gary