@STANDOUT = The ideal is to create visually consistent space between 
each letter.

@BYLINE = 

@BYLINE = by Robin Williams

@BYLINE = 

@1ST NCS 14UNJ = With more and more people becoming involved in design 
and typography, such previously unfamiliar words as kerning and tracking 
are now being bandied about at cocktail parties. Still, typography 
jargon can be confusing, even to experienced designers.

@ART NCS 10UNJ = 

@ART NCS 10UNJ = To add to the confusion, different software packages 
are vague about specific terms. In order to clear the air, let's talk 
about kerning, pair kerning, auto kerning, manual kerning, letterfit, 
track kerning, letter spacing, and word spacing, and let's discuss 
what each feature is and when you should use it.

@ART NCS 10UNJ = <F2B>Kerning:<F255D> You may be aware that kerning has 
to do with the space between letters. Technically and traditionally, 
kerning meant to reduce the amount of space between letters in text 
type (small type, below 14-point). The adjustment of the space in 
display type (above 14-point) has traditionally been termed letterfit. 
Nowadays, kerning is accepted as meaning to adjust the space between 
letters of any size, whether adding or decreasing space.

@ART NCS 10UNJ = <F2B>Pair kerning:<F255D> Fonts are designed with a <169>pen 
advance,<170> the amount of space the <169>pen<170> should advance 
before it starts to create the next letter. Between certain pairs 
of letters, however, the average pen advance appears to be too much 
space, such as between a capital <MI>T<D> and a lowercase <MI>u<D>, 
so particular pairs of letters are programmed to have less space between 
them when they are set on the page together. This is called pair kerning 
and is built into most good fonts.

@ART NCS 10UNJ = <F2B>Auto pair kerning:<F255D> Most page layout programs 
let you choose whether to auto pair kern. If you choose the auto pair 
kern option, the program will use automatic pair kerning values built 
into the font (if the font has any). Some programs allow you to turn 
it on only for larger point sizes of type; for example, you can ask 
for auto pair kerning only when the type size is above 12-point.

@ART NCS 10UNJ = If you turn auto pair kerning off, the program will 
set your type using only the standard pen advance between letters. 
It's generally a good idea to let the text auto pair kern throughout 
the entire document.

@ART NCS 10UNJ = <F2B>Manual kerning:<F255D> Even with auto pair kerning, 
there are always certain letter combinations that need a little more 
adjusting, either because of the way the rest of the word fits together 
or because that particular pair doesn't have kerning built into it. 
All page layout programs have a way for you to manually increase or 
decrease the space between letters.

@ART NCS 10UNJ = Manual kerning is a fine-tuning adjustment, typically 
just between two characters. Headlines almost always need manual kerning 
in addition to auto pair kerning. The ideal is to create visually 
consistent space between each letter, which cannot be done mechanically.

@ART NCS 10UNJ = <F2B>Tracking, or track kerning:<F255D>    We need to go 
back to our typographical roots to understand tracking. When type 
was being cast in metal, the typecutters would build in a different 
pen advance for each size of type, because when type is set small, 
such as five- to eight-point, it needs extra space between the letters. 
When type is set large, it needs less space between the letters.

@ART NCS 10UNJ = Page layout software, however, ignores this fact. 
A program takes a standard size, such as 12-point, and uses it to 
compute the <%-2>amount<%0> of space for all other point sizes. Therefore, 
at 6-point, it uses half the amount of letterspacing; at 36-point, 
three times the amount. This is quite contrary to optimum spacing 
values.

@ART NCS 10UNJ = Ideally, a program's tracking feature will automatically 
adjust the spacing according to the point size of the type. Although 
this adjustment should take advantage of any built-in kern pairs, 
not all programs use tracking the same way. <MI>Aldus PageMaker<D> 
increases the letterspacing if the text is small and decreases the 
space if the text is large. It takes into <%-2>consideration<%0> the 
point size of the type and uses the pair kerning values built into 
the font. <MI>QuarkXPress<D> and <MI>Adobe Illustrator<D> use the 
term tracking to mean kerning over a range of text. That is, if you 
adjust the space between two selected characters, these programs call 
it kerning; if it's more than two characters, they call it tracking.

@ART NCS 10UNJ = Point-size-dependant tracking is a complex feature 
and can slow the composition of your text on the screen. use it for 
automatic optimum spacing on very small or very large text. If you 
simply want loose or tight letterspacing between regular body text, 
use your program's <169>letterspacing<170> feature.

@ART NCS 10UNJ = <F2B>Letterspacing:<F255D> It sounds like we've been talking 
about letterspacing all this time, right? Well, we have. But some 
page layout programs also offer a separate option called letterspacing. 
This feature allows you to add an arbitrary amount of space between 
every letter. It does not take the automatic pair kerning values into 
consideration; the amount you specify is simply added into the existing 
space. Also, in some programs, letterspacing will apply to the entire 
paragraph, not just to selected characters, which is definitely a 
factor to be aware of when you are deciding how much to adjust the 
letter fit.

@ART NCS 10UNJ = <F2B>Word spacing:<F255D> Some programs offer the option 
of increasing word spacing. The <169>space band,<170> or the optimum 
amount of space that should appear between each word, is built into 
a font. In most programs, adjusting the word spacing does not affect 
the letterspacing. (Letterspacing, however, often does affect the 
word spacing.)

@ART NCS 10UNJ = Although it's not usually necessary, if you do adjust 
the word spacing the space should be visually consistent with the 
letter space. It will look awkward to have tight letterspacing and 
wide word spacing. You may need to add extra word spacing when you 
use a script font. Scripts often have connecting strokes reaching 
out to the next letter; at the end of a word, these strokes can interrupt 
the word space.  <F129M>o<F255D>

@ART NCS 10UNJ = 

@ART NCS 10UNJ = <MI>(Robin Williams is the author of <169>The Little 
Mac Book, The Mac Is Not a Typewriter,<170> and <169>PageMaker 4: 
An Easy Desk Referrence.<170> She teaches graphic design and computer 
programming at Santa Rosa Junior College in Santa Rosa, California.)

@ART NCS 10UNJ =  This article is from the July-August 1991 issue 
of <BI>Desktop Communications<D>.

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