Do You Kern?

[astro8]

Yes bob, I do agree with your last comments. This is more like the response I expected from an experienced typesetter. I know the 'rules', but there are always exceptions.

I was going to rave on about negative space being just as or more important as positive space. How the trend today is to cramp everything up to the detriment of legibility. How the 'right' way to space lettering is to work out your pair with the largest negative space and adjust your overall spacing accordingly. Logos are exempt from this of course, as a logo is treated as a graphic, picture or symbol. How negative space helps illuminates positive space and all that, but I'm more interested in how yourself kerned metal letters. Were lead letters snipped off with sidecutters or similiar, or was it more involved than that? Were you supplied sets of letters in kerning pairs or was it left to you to decide if they needed, or were to be kerned? Did you work with brass letters as well, or was lead the norm?

I've seen sets of kerned metal letters where they looked like they were just hacked off with a hacksaw or snipped willy nilly rather than designed or cast that way. In a busy shop with a looming deadline I suppose anything goes.

My copy/paste was from Wikipedia, yes I should have included the attribute but it was way past 6pm (Sydney) and for all I knew I was living on borrowed time...

 

[bob]

... but I'm more interested in how yourself kerned metal letters. Were lead letters snipped off with sidecutters or similiar, or was it more involved than that? Were you supplied sets of letters in kerning pairs or was it left to you to decide if they needed, or were to be kerned? Did you work with brass letters as well, or was lead the norm?...

Eons ago in a print shop far far away, I believe there was a drawer or two containing notched pairs, apparently from the foundry. As I recall, no one had ever used them for anything, they were a curiosity. They just sat there in that back of the building amid stacks of trays of old wood type. Which I wish I had today, I could finance my retirement selling the wood type one character at a time.

Anytime anyone had to manually adjust character spacing by removing metal it was done with files. We tried to only do it when absolutely necessary since it virtually destroyed at least one, if not both, of the characters involved. There's only so much type an a drawer. It was seldom done.

Never worked with brass, just lead and every now and then, when some specimen face was needed, wood.

 

[astro8]

Thanks for the insight.

 

[signswi]

bob you must have really hated the 90s and David Carson.

 

[Magnum Graphics]

Kerning

Always check. Except when the customer wants it to look dirty, or they bring me artwork.

 

[Fatboy]

Bob...have you got children?