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Participant
January 12, 2017
Answered

Units for Character spacing

  • January 12, 2017
  • 11 replies
  • 51264 views

Hi All,

I was just wondering in which unit the Character spacing are indicated in XD.

I do know that they are not px, unlike the line spacing.

Thanks for your help.

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer elainecc

We're working in milli-ems, which is 1/1000th of the point size of the font. If you're from the web world, it's similar to ems, but just divided by 1/1000. Hope that helps!

-Elaine

11 replies

Participant
August 3, 2023

[abuse removed by moderator]

Participant
November 16, 2022

It's been nearly 6 years since this question was asked. Why does XD still not natively support unit conversion? (similar to how it's done in Webflow)

Participant
November 9, 2021

Here is the mlliems to point conversion

https://codepen.io/tdubal3/pen/XWaYroe

Participant
February 4, 2021

Would like to add my voice and say this should probably be fixed. Software is designed for developing websites & apps, but all the metrics need to be converted manually? Doesn't make sense

fitfabadobe
Participant
April 7, 2021

This does not work for web/app development. Please address the issue.

Participant
August 19, 2020

Here, I made a converter just to make my life simpler.
You can use it to convert letter spacing from XD to CSS(px) and vice versa.
You can find it here: https://codepen.io/raunaqpatel/full/bGpwBvo

If you want the formula, its: 

lineSpaceinCSS = (lineSpaceinXD * fontSizeinXD)/ 1000;
attilaj7596670
Participant
February 23, 2021

Great, thank you!

Zaid Al-Dabbagh
Participant
May 19, 2020

You might be able to use this CSS formula to workout the corresponding CSS-to-AdobeXDLetterSpacing equivilant (See below).

 

letter-spacing: calc(-1em * 0.001 * <XDCharacterSpacing>);

For example, lets say you have Character Spacing set to "-70", then you'll use ...

letter-spacing: calc(-1rem * 0.001 * 70);

For example, lets say you have Character Spacing set to "120", then you'll use ...

 

letter-spacing: calc(1rem * 0.001 * 120);
philb67143745
Participating Frequently
May 19, 2020

Thank you Pandauxstudio,

 

But this is a CSS solution, and I think it'ss way to complicated for a design software!
I hope they won't take if as a solution 😉
But thank you for your work!


April 14, 2020

I didn't know that I needed a calculator to use this programm...If adobe wants to make a better user experience for their users please change this to pixels, no one understands this system! For type / font systems styleguides this is a horrible user experience! Lately they just released "marketing features" for new users, instead of focusing in the users that use this professionaly...

philb67143745
Participating Frequently
November 28, 2019

Hi Elaine,
Sorry but this is not solved.
This is the first time I heard about "mili-ems".

I just realized now that I was sending numbers like "-0.84px" to my devs team, thru the XD share link, which completly looks like a random number, and they even tend to not use it!.

On the shared file we have px/pt/dp option. It's more than obvious that we need the same units (+ mili-ems if you guys need it) on the application.

Thank you. This is a huge issue IMO

Participant
May 20, 2019

This is really stupid...

If I want to use 1.5px as character spacing, for 1.5px at default 14px, it translates to:

1.5px = 0.10714285714285714em

so I have to multiply by 1000 which is :

107.1428571429

....

REALLY? I have to do all this just for my character spacing in px?

elainecc
Community Manager
elaineccCommunity ManagerCorrect answer
Community Manager
January 14, 2017

We're working in milli-ems, which is 1/1000th of the point size of the font. If you're from the web world, it's similar to ems, but just divided by 1/1000. Hope that helps!

-Elaine

LauraMtzAuthor
Participant
January 16, 2017

Thanks Elainecc,

I may think that it is not too practical for working on a web project and give the specs for the dev team.

Thank you!