Difference between leading, tracking and kerning?

[mike]

What is the difference between leading, tracking and kerning?

Thanks.

[Linda Rathgeber]

mike wrote:

> What is the difference between leading, tracking and kerning?

Leading determines the amount of space between lines in a paragraph.

Tracking is the spacing between characters in a line of text.

Kerning increases or decreases the spacing between certain pairs of
letters, like AV, which look better if their boxes overlap slightly.


Linda Rathgeber
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Design Aid: 10-Palette Pack for Fireworks & Flash
[url]http://www.webdevbiz.com/graphics.cfm[/url]
Playing with Fire | [url]http://www.playingwithfire.com[/url]
Victoriana | Theme Pack 03 - Club | [url]http://www.projectseven.com[/url]
Team MM Fireworks Volunteer | [url]www.macromedia.com/go/team[/url]
----------------------------------------------------------------------

[Stéphane Bergeron]

mike wrote:

> What is the difference between leading, tracking and kerning?

Leading is the distance (usually measured in points) from the baseline
of one line of type to the baseline of the one that precedes or follows
it. Note that this is not affected by the lenght of ascenders and
descenders. It is strictly measured between baselines.

Tracking is the measure of the overall spacing between letters in a
block of text. Tightening or loosening the tracking reduces or enlarges
the space between characters by the same proportional amount for all
characters.

Kerning is the adjustment of the space between two specific charatcers
to compensate for their relative shapes. A lowercase letter set after a
"T" for example will appear too far away if it is not kerned properly
because of all the white space under the crossbar of the "T". Kerning
these two characters closer together restores the more natural spacing
rythm found among the characters in the rest of the text.

Most quality fonts already have some good kerning information included
within them but it almost always needs to be manually adjusted for
titling text or logos or it just "looks" wrong. Good or bad kerning is
often the most visible sign of professional typographic vs amateur work.

If you want to lear more about about typography (it's one of the
cornerstones of graphic design afterall), you should check out the
"Complete Manual Of Typography" by James Felici (Adobe Press). It is
widely regarded as one of the best modern books on the subject. I used a
lot of his wording in that book's Glossary for my explanations above.

HTH!

Stéphane Bergeron

[Sam Poikail]

"Stéphane Bergeron" <lists@webfocusdesign.com> wrote in message
news:bmmi6p$c9j$1@forums.macromedia.com...

> If you want to lear more about about typography (it's one of the
> cornerstones of graphic design afterall), you should check out the
> "Complete Manual Of Typography" by James Felici (Adobe Press). It is
> widely regarded as one of the best modern books on the subject. I used a
> lot of his wording in that book's Glossary for my explanations above.

From an Amazon reviewer:
"I always buy books with the idea of reselling on Amazon.com after I'm
finished. It's not working in this case: My Felici looks like it's been left
out in the rain and attacked by our dog. That's because I've dragged it
everywhere while carefully making my way through it, a few enjoyable pages
at a time. "

Well if that isn't high praise, I don't know what it is...

Thanks for the handy reference, Stéphane. However, a pox on you for adding
to my always burgeoning wishlist ;o)

Cheers,
Sam