Auto vs Optical in Character styles - kerning

Question

Just wanted to post, as I was today-years-old to discover this.

All this time I thought I had to crack open the kerning tables on these fonts I've been using over the years. Letters 'r' and 't' kissing each other, 'A' and 'V' too far apart and avoiding each other. The letter pairs list goes on..

Look what happens when you change the 'Auto' to 'Optical'..

I feel empowered. 🤗

And curious question for the illustrator engineers - why not make the 'Optical' as the 'Auto'. Because evidently the Auto is Automatically off. 🤷‍♂

Brad @ Roaring Mouse · Accepted Answer

Ahhh, Avenir. (sigh)This used be one of my favourite fonts, but it has had a history of issues, the worst of which is its notoriously odd kerning pairs and side bearings, made even worse in the "New" version. Just because it's from a high-end foundry like Linotype, it still comes down to the typeface designer's desires.The Auto setting will use the Font Metrics information designed if it exists, if not, it goes Optical.I would not want the default to be Optical, as that has other ramifications, e.g. not matching output from other programs, etc. Besides, most Font Metrics are actually better than Optical anyway and are the way the designer intended, for better or worse. Optical is just an algorithm. (The third option, of course is no kerning pairs at all (i.e. selecting "0"), but as you can see from the actual metrics for a lower case "r" even THAT would almost touch the next letter (Avenir New) or even still overlap (oldschool Avenir Book). Avenir New for some reason INCREASED the left sidebearing on the "r" so now it's even more off to the right from a previous letter. There's nothing to prevent you from making a template file where Optical is YOUR default.fwiw: I abandoned Avenir and switched to Proxima, by the way, over the years and haven't looked back!

Bobby Henderson · Answer

I bought a copy of Avenir Next LT Pro at the MyFonts site several years ago when the type family was on sale for only around $100. I don't often see deals like that at the MyFonts site anymore now that Monotype owns it. Anyway...

I see the kerning issue with the "rt" pair. The two letters are closely spaced, but don't physically touch each other in the lighter weights. The letters might look like they're touching on screen, but in print you'll see small gaps. The "rt" letters do start touching with bolder styles. It's very common for many typefaces to have letter pairs that touch each other or even overlap significantly.

I'm not seeing any problems with the "AV" kerning pair.

The optical setting is not a cure-all for kerning and tracking issues. The setting can even trade one set of spacing problems for another. With large passages of text on a printed page a good quality font's built-in spacing will usually be acceptable. When a string of lettering is sized big for graphical purposes the letter spacing often must be fine-tuned. Spacing needs for something like 12 point type on a letter sized page is very different than lettering in a logo.

Some fonts have different "display" styles that feature tighter spacing for large, headline use. Neue Haas Grotesk has different text and display fonts. Helvetica Now has fonts for display, text and micro uses.

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