Strange Kerning Behavior in Newest Illustrator

[howlaman]

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.

[kglad]

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">

[howlaman]

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.

[Kurt Gold]

Can you share a sample Illustrator file?

[howlaman]

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]

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

[howlaman]

Apologies - I didn't notice that was disabled! Illustrator was remembering a setting from a previous file.

[Kurt Gold]

I can reproduce the issue in the latest version of Illustrator on Windows 10.

It's probably a bug.

[Bobby Henderson]

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.

[howlaman]

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.

[Mike_Gondek]

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.

[howlaman]

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.

[howlaman]

I have unfortunately confirmed that swapping between Single-Line Composer and Every-Line Composer does not stop the issue.

[Kurt Gold]

Not quite. As far as I can see, swapping the composers actually may help to cure the issue sometimes.

Also, the issue apparently only occurs if one is doing a lot of individual kerning. The exact width of the text boxes seems to act a part as well. I would say it is a specific bug, but not a general one.

[howlaman]

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.

[Kurt Gold]

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.