Importance of kerning?

[Bobby H]

Some typefaces are better than others when it comes to their built-in default kerning. But lettering set in even the best quality typefaces may need some adjustments of some sort, even if it's just a slight tweak here and there. I might not worry about it if it is an inexpensive sign. But if it's something that will label a business for 20 years I'm going to put a little more work into making sure the spacing looks and works properly.

The vast majority of typefaces are made for close-up viewing, either on the printed page or perhaps on an electronic screen. Very few are specifically made for viewing outdoors and from a speeding automobile. It's obvious we have to choose our fonts carefully depending on the project. Some are friendly to things like lighted channel letters while other typefaces aren't good for that at all. When a specific typeface is chosen spacing, color, embellishments to the letters, etc. all become important factors that can either help or harm legibility.

One thing that drives me bananas with font kerning is badly spaced numerals. While most good quality fonts have acceptable default letter spacing not all that many have good optical numeral spacing for things like phone numbers, addresses, etc. Most fonts have their numerals set up for column spacing. Numerals like "1" tend to leave uneven looking gaps. OpenType fonts with different numeral sets for Proportional Lining and Tabular Lining can overcome those ugly spacing issues. Most fonts don't have that, which leaves me having to tinker with the spacing manually.

 

[bob]

Even though I was in typography class quite a few years ago(so some of this may not be 100% accurate) I think I remember that historically, good kerning was the mark of a quality typesetter. That back in the days where individual letters were hand-placed in order to print full books page-by-page that the really high-quality books had really great kerning (among other things). It was something of value because bad kerning caused interruptions in the flow of reading. Your eyes would pick up on those minute odd spacings and make it harder to 'lose yourself in a good book'. So famous writers and publishers would commission only the best typesetters to print their books. It was this attention to detail that separated the pro's from the hacks....much like today.

Sort of. Most likely what you're referring to is known in the trade as 'Ribbons of white.' When you look at a page, not reading it, just looking at it, you don't want to see a 'ribbon of white' winding its way down the page. A journeyman typesetter would pull a proof and check for this sort of thing. If present it was corrected first by diddling word spacing and, then if all else failed, letter spacing. Handset type relied on letter spacing based on the shoulder of the type body. You might brass it out a bit for some effect but generally not for simple text. 'Ribbons of white' is sort of mnemonic for any weird black and white image seen on a page. You wouldn't want to inadvertently have a swastika or a hand giving a finger or some other unpleasantness appear on a page.

Bye the bye, I set type, mostly by hand, for many years and hung around typesetters for many more years and I never, as in ever, encountered the term 'kerning' in the days pre-digital. Perhaps I've led a cloistered life but I'd give good odds that this term is a product of academia. Just like them to replace a perfectly good word like 'spacing' with a couple of relatively meaningless syllables.

 

[DesireeM]

Sort of. Most likely what you're referring to is known in the trade as 'Ribbons of white.' When you look at a page, not reading it, just looking at it, you don't want to see a 'ribbon of white' winding its way down the page. A journeyman typesetter would pull a proof and check for this sort of thing. If present it was corrected first by diddling word spacing and, then if all else failed, letter spacing. Handset type relied on letter spacing based on the shoulder of the type body. You might brass it out a bit for some effect but generally not for simple text. 'Ribbons of white' is sort of mnemonic for any weird black and white image seen on a page. You wouldn't want to inadvertently have a swastika or a hand giving a finger or some other unpleasantness appear on a page.

Bye the bye, I set type, mostly by hand, for many years and hung around typesetters for many more years and I never, as in ever, encountered the term 'kerning' in the days pre-digital. Perhaps I've led a cloistered life but I'd give good odds that this term is a product of academia. Just like them to replace a perfectly good word like 'spacing' with a couple of relatively meaningless syllables.

This. Basically anything that distracts from the message is a bad thing and should be avoided.

Though I've never been a professional hand-typesetter I'm pretty sure Kerning is a pre-digital term although originally it had a more specific definition related to cast-metal letters so that's probably why you never heard it used.

From Wikipedia(so it's gotta be true!): "In the days when all type was cast metal, parts of a sort that needed to overlap adjacent letters simply hung off the edge of the sort slug. The bit of metal that hung over the edge was called a kern. At that time, the word "kerning" only referred to manufacturing the sorts with kerns, while adjusting space between letters during compositing was called inter-spacing or letter spacing."

 

[Gino]

I thought it had to do with pop corn............??

Maniac....... were you fibbing, again ?? ​