Have
you ever used a font for the title of a document, and it just looked
awkward? Have you ever used a font at a large point size and noticed
the character spacing appeared to be off between certain letters?
Before I knew about kerning, whenever I discovered that the font for
my document title looked a bit awkward at a higher point size, I'd
just choose a different font. You can keep using your
original font and fix that awkward look by using kerning.
What
is kerning?
Kerning
is expanding or condensing the spacing in between characters to look
more natural or to add an artistic effect. You can add effects
that you would not be able to get with standard character spacing.
Kerning
Titles
For
the example here, a font that is easy to read, Times New Roman, is
used so that the effects of kerning can be readily seen. This
is the document title:
At
first glance, this title looks fine. What you do notice after
examining it closely, is that the space between the "o"
and "y" in "Employee" appears to be just a bit
wider than between other letters, even though the area between the
top left tip of the "y" and the widest part of the
"o" has the proper spacing. This type of problem is
more prominently seen in other types of fonts you might use. To make
the adjustment:
1.
Select the pair of characters. In this case, the "o"
and the "y".
2.
From the Format menu, choose Font, and select the Character
Spacing tab in the Font dialog box.
3.
In the Spacing field, choose the drop down arrow and select Condensed.
4.
In the By field for Spacing, type 1 or use the arrows
to adjust the point size. Remember, this does not adjust the
size of the actual letters, only the space in between the letters.
Your changes are reflected in the Preview field of the Character
Spacing tab.
Note:
You can automatically turn on kerning for these letters when you
enter this combination above a particular font size. For
example, if you are kerning a pair of letters in a subheading in
your document, and the subheadings are in a 14 pt. font, you can
turn on automatic kerning for these characters whenever you type the
combination at 14 pts. or above. This saves you the time of
kerning the character combination in every subheading in your
document. To activate, check the box in the Kerning for
fonts field and select or type a point size for Points and
above.
5.
Choose OK. The following graphics illustrate the slight
change made to the spacing.
Original
Condensed
Note
that the spacing between the "o" and "y" in the
new condensed version looks more natural than the original.
Adding
Artistic Effects
The
Character Spacing tab in the Font dialog box also has
a Position field. You can raise or lower characters by
point size. Using this in combination with the Spacing
field can create some interesting artistic effects. One of the
most common being alternating characters:
Every
other character is raised 3 pts. above the rest. To do this:
1.
Select the first character to be raised.
2.
From the Format menu, choose Font, and select the Character
Spacing tab.
3.
In the Position field, choose the drop down arrow and select Raised.
The By section can be adjusted for the number of points you
would like the character raised. In our example above, I chose
3 pts. Your changes are reflected in the Preview field of the Character
Spacing tab.
4.
Choose OK. Continue to select characters and adjust the
positions until you have reached the desired effect.
Kerning
can be a great way to keep your original font choice and still have
your document look professional and uniform!
Notice: You have the author's
permission to use the tutorials on this site for your personal
use only. If you would like to use these tutorials for
training classes or other commercial use, please contact kstille@esmartweb.com.
Distribution in print or on the Web without the author's permission
is strictly prohibited.
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