It’s about space s.
Why your typography still stinks.
Not because you've got crap taste in typefaces, but because you forgot about spacing.
Tracking, kerning, and leading.. the most annoying, boring, mundane, mind numbing
meat and potatoes of typography.
Do you even kern?
Kerning is the space between individual letters.
Now, imagine adjusting that space, and instead of doing it between just two letters, you're doing it across the whole sentence. That’s tracking.
Leading is simply the space above and below sentences.
You’re all familiar with some teacher asking for your essay to be written in Times New Roman, 12pt, double spaced. The “double spaced,” part is the leading.
It’s called leading because typesetter would actually use slabs of lead shoved in between lines of metal type to space out one line from the next.
Okay, so how do you kern properly? Is there some secret technique, a hidden lever to pull?
Unfortunately not. It's all about VISUAL balance.
Think of kerning as a little dance. Letter and words enough room to breathe and move gracefully without stepping on each other's toes. Too close, and they stumble. Too far, and they're doing solos instead of a tango.
Let’s pretend you've picked your font(s), and they’re great. Headline font is great, body font is great. You're feeling cocky. But something still looks off. It's like a nagging itch.
Start with your headline. Look at it. Really look at it. Zoom in until the letters fill your screen. Nudge them closer, then further apart.
See how they interact, how they change the feel of the sentence and the entire design. Find the sweet spot where everything clicks into place. Adjust the space between individual letters where necessary. That, my friends, is tracking and kerning.Simple.
If you do it right, literally NO-ONE should notice you even did anything. It's about harmony, balance, and creating visual rhythm.
But if you mess it up, your design will have all the appeal of a pigshit soup. Get it right, and you will get zero compliments.
But. And this is a big but. It will just look right.
If you’re looking at your work and you’re thinking “HOW do I get good at this?”
You have to actually try. And try and try. I wish I had better news for you. But there's no magic bullet.
