Kerning

[scottp55]

Randall just posted a nice thread link on Vectric forum on kerning.
http://forum.vectric.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=23562
Seeing as I didn't even know what it was a year ago, and still pretty weak on it, I thought I'd post it.
The link there to play a Kerning game was pretty fun as well.
http://type.method.ac/#
I only got an 87 on my first try:(
More caffeine! :)
scott

[Mayo]

That was a good article - and like you Scott, most people that deal with type on an infrequent basis never realize it can (and should) be manually kerned for the best visual appeal.

When I went to the Institute of Lettering and Design in Chicago (to learn sign painting) our instructor "Uncle Sid" Borden explained kerning in very simple terms:

Imagine the space between each letter pair as a sort of visual liquid. If you were to pour liquid between each pair of letters, it would be the same amount of liquid between each pair when you have visually kerned them properly.

By the way, there is kerning between each word as well.

In the work I do, which consists of cut out letters displayed on a base, I never create text without adjusting the kerning manually. Almost all of the fonts I have used require adjusting - some more than others.
And the general public probably doesn't consciously notice the difference unless it's really horribly wrong.

Once you start "seeing" how incorrect most fonts are, you will become addicted to kerning if you strive to produce pleasing typographical designs. To my detriment I'll sometimes take 30 to 40 minutes designing something that will only take 4 to 6 minutes to cut on the bot. It can be counter productive financially and you reach a point where it becomes "good enough".

And to be fair, it's not always the font that's the problem - sometimes it's the design program that will not kern the font the way it was designed. This has been improving though. We've come a long way since Coreldraw 1.0.
I'm glad I never saved my speedball pen and ink practice sheets from school. All hand lettered and kerned on the fly! I'm sure today I would think they were horrible.

But it does make the difference between something that looks "right" and your eyes and brain see the whole design or reads the word without thinking about it instead of something that pulls your eye to the incorrect amount of space between two letters.

Connected script lettering is particularly annoying to kern because you then have to alter the lines which connect one letter to the next after you have kerned them properly.

Welcome to the dimension of negative space!

[rb99]

I used a sign program Casmate years ago that could remember manual kerning.

[scottp55]

Thanks Mayo,
Now to get rid of some of the negative space in the old gray matter:)
Luckily most of my stuff is so small that most people are so amazed I can do it, that correct kerning doesn't hit them upside the head like it would on larger projects.
Slowly it gets better:)
scott

[joe]

Scott,

Thanks for posting on this topic. Mechanical machine lettering should not be trusted. Every time I set a line of copy, it's reviewed for spacing errors. Glad you selected the topic.

Prior to computer lettering, when lettering was put down manually all this was done without thinking. http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=26536&stc=1