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howlaman
Known Participant
December 15, 2023
Question

Strange Kerning Behavior in Newest Illustrator

  • December 15, 2023
  • 4 replies
  • 3604 views

I'm noticing this issue consistently with the newest iteration of Illustrator:

 

If I have text that is close to the edge of the text box, and I try to make kerning between two characters tighter/smaller, Illustrator temporarily shows the text breaking into two lines, as if it won't fit on one, before readjusting to one line again. It's making it very difficult to fine-tune kerning, as I can't see the progress I'm making. Is this due to some feature I can turn off? I've tried resetting preferences and seen no difference.

 

How the text is supposed to look:

 

When I try to decrease the kerning between two letters (which should free up some space on the line, not increase it):

 

After about half a second, it reverts back to one line again.

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    4 replies

    Mike_Gondek10189183
    Mike_Gondek10189183
    Community Expert
    December 18, 2023

    Try resetting your prefs and starting with a new document. How are you kerning, are you using the correct key commands to tighten? When you tightenm kerning, does the kerning value get smaller in the character palette

     

    That might happen if every line composer is on.  Optical kerning is very nice, better than the kerning pairs set up in many fonts under auto.

     

     

      H
      howlamanAuthor
      Known Participant
      December 18, 2023

      Hi, thanks for the reply. I did put in my initial post that resetting preferences didn't help. Auto vs. Optical kerning does not help either. I did try that. This issue has been happening on all documents, not just one.

       

      The paragraph preferences were set to Single-Line. I can try changing to "every-line" in the paragraph settings and see if that makes a difference, unless what you're saying is that single line should be the correct one?

       

      EDIT: missed a question. The kerning number does look like it's reflecting changes I'm making. I'm using the same Alt+left hotkey I've been using for all previous Illustrator versions.

      Kurt Gold
      Kurt Gold
      Community Expert
      December 20, 2023

      Swapping between them seemed to work one work day for a file and then didn't work on that same file or any others afterward, at least for me. So it was only a cure/solution once for about 3 hours of worktime. I tried again yesterday and today with no luck.

       

      I am also now having this same issue when moving a text box that has tight-to-the-edge kerning: not just when actively adjusting the kerning itself. If I have the text box selected and try to move it using my keyboard arrow keys, the text does the same temporary line break behavior.


      Yes, it may also happen if one is just clicking the font family or font size dropdown menus (without changing anything at all).

       

      You may report it as a bug at the Uservoice section.

      B
      Bobby Henderson
      Community Expert
      December 15, 2023

      Is that text element part of a larger area text box? If it's just a stand-alone text object I'd set the text as a point text object. The bounding box around point text objects automatically grows or shrinks as letters are added or removed (or the typeface is changed). You won't have the odd behaviors of lettering jumping to a second line.

      H
      howlamanAuthor
      Known Participant
      December 18, 2023

      It is part of a larger area - I removed information that is personal to my workplace for the sake of posting on here. Having a preset text box is beneficial to keep the text definitively within certain margin spaces, so point text is not so much of a solution.

      Kurt Gold
      Kurt Gold
      Community Expert
      December 15, 2023

      Can you share a sample Illustrator file?

       

      H
      howlamanAuthor
      Known Participant
      December 18, 2023

      I've attached a sample to this post, if that works correctly. It's unfortunately a pdf as I can't upload a .ai to the forums here. I don't know if that will mess things up.

      Things that have not made a difference:

      - Preference reset

      - Changing kerning between Auto and Optical

      - New document, whether it's made before or after preference reset

      Kurt Gold
      Kurt Gold
      Community Expert
      December 18, 2023

      Please save and upload a .pdf file with Illustrator Editing Capabilities turned on.

       

      kglad
      kglad
      Community Expert
      December 15, 2023

      in the future, to find the best place to post your message, use the list here, https://community.adobe.com/

      p.s. i don't think the adobe website, and forums in particular, are easy to navigate, so don't spend a lot of time searching that forum list. do your best and we'll move the post (like this one has already been moved) if it helps you get responses.



      <"moved from using the community">
      H
      howlamanAuthor
      Known Participant
      December 18, 2023

      Thanks - I actually believe that's where I started, but I could be mistaken. I asked it to post under Illustrator discussions. I've had issues in the past with forum posts not going to the correct spot before, so I'm not sure if that's user error or not at this point.

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