Font Editor

Kerning and placement

Kerning

Kerning changes the space between two glyphs, such as the gap in AV. The Kerning panel lists every pair, grouped by character, in tables. Drag a glyph along the line to kern its pair, or across it to shift its ink (placement); ⇧ keeps the drag on one axis. With the pointer on a pair, the arrow keys nudge it. Double-click a pair to reset it. Pairs can be kerned the same way in a preview. Monospace modules have no Kerning panel.

The glyph editor's Kern tab shows the pairs of the glyph you're drawing. Vertical text has kerning of its own: see Vertical writing.

Auto-kern, opened from the top of the Kerning panel, proposes pairs for the glyph open or for every glyph, and shows each one before and after. Take the ones that look right, then Apply.

Placement

Placement moves a glyph's ink when it follows a certain other glyph, without changing how much room it takes. It works along the line or across it. In a monospace font, where every glyph has the same width, placement does the job kerning would.

Pairs are listed in the Placement panel and in the glyph's Placement tab.