Tracking and kerning

Tracking

The spacing between characters (tracking) in a paragraph of any alignment can have a subtle impact on the reader. Publisher allows you to experiment with the letter spacing in your text.

Kerning

Kerning is normally applied where two large, adjacent characters look over- or under-spaced due to the shape of the characters, and is used to reduce or increase the space between the pair of characters.

By default, Publisher applies the kerning tables that the font designer has set for the font. This will often require manual kerning (especially in titles) to ensure that all characters appear evenly spaced.

To adjust tracking:

With a range of text selected, do one of the following:
- From the Character panel, choose a value from the Tracking setting, using the up and down arrows, the pop-up menu, or by typing in a new value.
- From the Text menu's Spacing sub-menu, select one of the spacing options.

To adjust kerning:

With an insertion point made by clicking between two characters in your text, do one of the following:
- From the Character panel, choose a value from the Kerning setting, using the up and down arrows, the pop-up menu, or by typing in a new value. Auto will automatically kern characters by default. Positive values give expanded kerning, negative values give condensed kerning.
- From the Text menu's Spacing sub-menu, select one of the spacing options.

Keyboard shortcuts

The following keyboard shortcuts also allow you to adjust tracking or kerning:

To loosen spacing in 10% increments, press .
To tighten spacing in 10% decrements, press .
To loosen spacing in 50% increments, press .
To tighten spacing in 50% decrements, press .

To loosen spacing in 10% increments, +.
To tighten spacing in 10% decrements, +.
To loosen spacing in 50% increments, press ++.
To tighten spacing in 50% decrements, press ++.

Tracking

Kerning

Keyboard shortcuts

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