Kerning
- Only kern one word, don't bother kerning a whole paragraph.
- Kerning is making the space between characters consistent
- The way it works is visual
- It is the area between the letters that is the white space, it is not to do with the space at the bottom or top of the letters
- Don't negative kern, add equal space to make the space consistent instead
- It is mathematical to make it equal, but you need to train the eye to be able to see it
Exercise 1
Kern your own name, making it perfect, and compare
First Name
Font: Calibri
Kerning changes: Between l and a +20, between a and u -10 (initially -16), between d and i +20, between i and a +10
Second Name
Font: Baskerville
Kerning changes: Between i and f +10, between f and f +20, between f and i +20, between i and n +10
Hierarchy
- What causes us to look at which element first? *The space around the word *The size of text, weight
- Learn to look at what is there, blink, and think about which element you saw first
- We don't read the whole word, we recognise the shape
- Experiments with hierarchy - reading it one, two three
- Experiments with hierarchy - reading it one, two three
Exercise 2
Play with a 6-7 word proverb, keep it all the same font, rearrange it so it is not in the right order, but so that due to the hierarchy it reads in the same way.
Breaking sentences
Where/ how/ why do you break a sentence into two lines?
- Read it as if you are saying it
- Split it where the natural pause it
How do you break a sentence
into two lines?
- Split this way, the first bit still makes sense
- Where you break a line can completely change the meaning of a heading
Exercise 3
Whatever your proverb is, break it into two lines, at the natural pause.
