I often see the word 'kerning' used incorrectly by CSS heads when the term they're actually looking for to describe letter spacing is 'tracking'. Let me explain using CSS terminology!
Tracking is the same as gap in flex layouts; consistent spacing applied across the entire text.
But what if... 🧵
Tracking is the same as gap in flex layouts; consistent spacing applied across the entire text.
But what if... 🧵
October 16, 2025 at 10:12 AM
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Overleden Paus verdient betere spatiëring van zijn uitgehouwen naam op zijn steen. Hemeltergend | Deceased Pope deserves better spacing of his carved name on his stone. Heaven forbid.
#handlettering #handtype #signing #typography #typographic #typographymatters #typographydesign #letterspacing
#handlettering #handtype #signing #typography #typographic #typographymatters #typographydesign #letterspacing
April 28, 2025 at 1:46 PM
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Paragraph-level composition of justified text, with hyphens applied as necessary, and letterspacing as the very last resort, has been the standard for page layout programs for 30 years now.
September 16, 2025 at 3:07 AM
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Typographic boldfacing in German is/was conventionally loose letterspacing. I guess it's mostly archaic but I've seen it in Latin alphabet
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emphasi...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emphasi...
Emphasis (typography) - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
September 10, 2025 at 7:18 PM
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June 13, 2024 at 2:16 AM
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An alternative typeface picked almost at random shows a much better rhythm and no "blobs" due to poor letterspacing (in the font, not by the operator). (Again, the blurring and thresholding is intended to exaggerate the optical effect of uneven spacing, but unlike the Palatino, no blobs formed.)
May 22, 2025 at 5:10 AM
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Thank you for the input! I feel I'm a fairly exact person, and minute details matter. In FontForge, there doesn't seem to be a precise way to control the general letterspacing (kerning). I agree, this is where a great font can become garbage. The white space matters, a lot!
July 12, 2025 at 5:02 PM
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Yeah I agree about the paragraph marks. Funnily I didn't notice on a first pass. There is a typo and a half, and the letterspacing is a little weird, but not more than I'd expect with common digital cuts. I'd have loosened everything a little bit for better rhythm and maybe increased leading, —
September 14, 2025 at 6:06 AM
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I have some difficult news: your word has gotten out of the barn and has evolved to ALSO mean letterspacing
April 30, 2025 at 8:30 PM
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If you've designed the /R so that people are forced to use extra letterspacing to set a decent line of all caps type, you have laid a trap for your users and should be ashamed. Looking at you too, Stanley Morison and the other folks at Salfords who drew Bembo.
April 20, 2025 at 6:29 PM
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Sure looks that way.
February 23, 2025 at 11:45 PM
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and if that fails, criticize their letterspacing and kerning.
January 2, 2025 at 6:18 PM
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This is a quibble but "kerning" to me implies a process of adjusting the default spacing between letterforms, and no process seems to have occurred here. Let's just say the letterspacing sucks.
They fucked up the kerning on Pope Francis’s tomb. FR A NCISC VS. “There is no historical or aesthetic reason why the kerning is so poor.” [fastcompany.com]
Why the lettering on Pope Francis’s tomb looks so bad - Fast Company
The internet is up in arms about Pope Francis’s tomb, and it’s all because of lettering.
www.fastcompany.com
April 30, 2025 at 8:06 PM
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Often with letterspacing challenges it is tempting to do a makeover. I'd invite people to submit their respaced better versions of this.
Consider it like that web "learn to letterspace" game.
Consider it like that web "learn to letterspace" game.
May 21, 2025 at 10:17 PM
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"I also told Hamish long before he revealed the vampire within his Kiwi soul how to fix the design letterspacing problem."
"For want of a nail..."
"For want of a nail..."
June 24, 2025 at 3:45 AM
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Letterspacing headlines mostly. Yeah agreed, but sometimes I'd like to compare specific measurements when making a subjective decision.
July 21, 2025 at 5:15 PM
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but who teaches letterspacing
July 26, 2025 at 11:57 PM
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Tracking is a parameter that can be adjusted; it's a very basic typographical parameter that a typesetter will always review.
But at last we have proper optically sized digital designs, as well, which include suitable letterspacing by default.
But at last we have proper optically sized digital designs, as well, which include suitable letterspacing by default.
March 14, 2025 at 2:23 PM
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the letterspacing got your attention, so—
it was clearly a deliberate effect.
bland, nicely spaced Helvetica would surely more easily slide off people's attention?
it was clearly a deliberate effect.
bland, nicely spaced Helvetica would surely more easily slide off people's attention?
July 28, 2025 at 2:44 AM
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Arial on Windows isn't rendering the same as on OSX. The letterspacing on Windows is wider. So weird.
November 18, 2024 at 2:34 PM
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Oh dear, updated to iOS 9, and the new Twitter has awful loose letterspacing.
November 16, 2024 at 9:22 PM
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Natural attention to letterspacing and forms! you got 78% of a typographer there
July 17, 2025 at 7:12 PM
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Many of these examples reflect poor builtin letterspacing iow … which is usually the first way that low quality reveals itself, even in Big Name Foundry fonts (Adobe was never particularly high on the quality scale).
March 26, 2025 at 10:14 PM
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