With bad kerning, letters can be too close together, forming non-distinguishable characters, and it will be harder to read in general: Top ↑ Five Basic Rules to Follow Top ↑ Rule No. mtstradling Report. Worse yet, if some letters have wider spacing and others narrower, it can be frustrating for someone … Aside from starting to kern type in your own projects, you can try out your kerning skills (and get feedback) with a web game called Kerntype : It’s a mistake that most designers make from time to time. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts Simply put, kerning is the space between pairs of letters. Bad Kerning, Good 'shrooms. When Automatic Kerning Isn’t Good Enough ... To ignore this and tighten all the rest will just make the bad pair stand out even more. Good vs. Bad Kerning Watch out for free fonts that have problematic kerning and awkward spacing between letters/words. The good kerning on top creates a compact group of characters that looks and feels like a cohesive visual unit. Kerning refers to the space between two letters or characters. In the following illustration, the top sample is over-kerned. Here is an example of good and bad kerning. There are extremes to kerning; letters can be too far apart or too close together. Maybe they were in a hurry. Good vs Bad Kerning/letterspacing As I crossed the street I came upon a message on a piece of wood with bad kerning. Here’s an example of good vs bad kerning. 4 years ago. Bad kerning means huge gaps between some characters and none between others. As every designer knows, knowing about design is a curse. Kerning is one of those design concepts that you really need to practice yourself—both to understand how it works and to get good at it. Well, if you think about where mushrooms grow, it's not that far off. Maybe it was just an oversight. POST. Community Member • Follow Unfollow. Both extremes will effect the legibility and readability of type. When words are well-kerned, the blank spaces between each character all have a visually similar area. Either the letters seem too close together, or the spaces between them are too wide. Maureen Mower. It gets to the gestalt in typographic form. Last Updated on February 2, 2021. In this image, the letters are disproportionately spaced out. - What every designer should know about kerning - DesainerHub Kerning. Good kerning means even spaces. Final score: 85 points. That loose pair pokes a hole in the line. If you want to practice your skills, play this Kerning Game.. You’ve probably looked at a cafe sign or a car logo and thought that ‘something’s a little off’. Maureen Mower. Maybe they weren’t giving it the attention it deserved. What Is Spacing and Kerning and Why They Are Crucial To Typography. 1 Readability No matter the reason, kerning is a … Set too closely together, words are indecipherable; set too far apart, and they're awkward to read. r/typography: Typography and type design. The reason it is considered bad kerning is because the P and O in the word ‘POST’ seem to be right on top of each other, as well as the S and T are fusing together. 2 points. While most of the character pairs can be tightened up snugly, the TY combination can’t. Kerning also adjusts space, but of the distance between two letters. Press J to jump to the feed. reply. View more comments #12 One looks a bit more legible and pleasing to the eye, right? 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