Keyboard shortcuts for Tracking and Kerning

[ceencha]

I haven't quite been able to figure out the difference between TRACKING and KERNING.

However, in the meantime, is there a keyboard shortcut I can use to enter tracking in (numerical) with the keyboard?

[Steve Werner · Accepted solution]

Option/Alt + left/right arrow changes tracking and kerning in the increment you've set in Preferences > Units & Increments > Keyboard Increments > Kerning/Tracking.

[ceencha]

When I put my cursor between two characters, it says "-12"

I want it to be "100" between these two letters.

CURRENTLY, I have to go DOUBLE click inside the kerning window, select all, and type in " 1 - 0 - 0 " then hit enter

That changes it to 100.

If I click APPLE + right arrow, it becomes 8, then 28, then 48, and never becomes 100.

Help?

[Peter Spier]

You should also be able to pick 100 from the list that drops down if you click the arrow to the right of the field.

The keyboard shortcut advances the number by the increment value set in the prefs. Evidently you are set to advance in 20/100 ems units. This will never hit any particular value unless it happens to fall on an increment of the original value used.

[Steve Werner]

The advantage of the keyboard shortcut is that you can set the kerning and tracking VISUALLY. Unless you have unusual memory, it's hard to know how much tracking between letters by using numeric values.

I usually set the default for keyboard increment to 5/100 ems which gives more precision.

[TᴀW]

And of course if you need exactly 100 you could create a character style

for it.

Ariel

[ceencha]

I should have also added:

It's not always "-12" — sometimes it is "-125" — sometimes it is "-20" etc. etc. etc.

I assume this comes from the full justification?

In any event, thanks for the help, everyone! . . . But as near as I can tell, I am simply going to have to keep using the mouse and keyboard to get my uniform "100" between my drop-caps and the text.  THANKS!

[Peter Spier]

Ceencha wrote:

I should have also added:

It's not always "-12" — sometimes it is "-125" — sometimes it is "-20" etc. etc. etc.

I assume this comes from the full justification?

Could be but there is often some value that the font designer builds into the font for various letter paiers to give them the desired look. Fill a text frame with placeholder text, left aligned, and use the arrow keys to move through it glyph by glyph. You'll see a wide range of values in some fonts, all (0) in some others. Try changing fonts to see the differences.

There is no one specific kerning value that would be correct for all drop caps. Good spacing is dependent on the shapes of the adjacent  characters.

[Faithfulltrav]

Thank you Steve! Thirteen yearts after you posted, you're helping me out.

[Peter Spier]

Kerning affect the spacing between a pair of glyphs. Tracking is similar, but is applied to any number of characters. You can use both together to tweak spacing.