Have you ever found yourself reading the same lines of text over and over again? You probably thought it was just because you were tired, but I bet that wasn’t the case. More likely, it is the result of improper adjustments (or a complete lack of adjustments) to the type!

Don’t make the same mistakes in your materials!

Kerning and Tracking

Kerning and tracking are very similar. They both have to do with the spacing between characters. More precisely, kerning is the space between two letters and tracking is the space between all the characters in a block or line of type. Because of the nature of digital typesetting, you will probably end up tracking text more than you will kern it.

Tracking tastes can vary between designers. I personally like type tracked tighter than the default because it increases legibility (remember we discussed how we recognize word shapes rather than the actual letters?). It is good practice to track headlines a little tighter for this reason, too.

Leading

The space between the lines is known as leading. The term comes from the thin lead (metal) strips that were placed between lines when typesetters put together their trays. It is pronounced led-ing, not leed-ing. (The professor corrected me on that one in front of the whole class, didn’t want you to have to go experience that!) Leading is always measured from baseline to baseline; it is not dependent on the x-height or ascender/descender sizes of the typeface.

Increasing font size is not the only way to improve readability! Leading is one of the keys to readable type. Even if you are using a small font, you can increase the leading to make the text much easier to read.

Short bits of body copy with slightly increased leading can also make the text more open and inviting to the reader. It’s probably not a good idea to exaggerate the leading too much for larger pieces of copy because it can be tiresome to read. However, increasing the leading slightly (maybe 1-2 points) for all copy will make it easier for the reader to track from one line to the next and not re-read lines.

The typical way to talk about type size and leading is like this: 10/12, which means the copy is set at 10 point font with 12 points of leading. If you know you want to increase the leading of the type by 4, you would take the size of the text and add 4, so 10 point type would have 14 points of leading. If someone asks you to make it set solid, that means the font size and the leading are the same, 12/12 for example. This is done with headlines more than anything else. Headlines can also be set with negative leading, like 100/80, which saves space without sacrificing readability too much. If you set negative a headline, though, be careful of where your ascenders and descenders are and adjust the kerning if necessary. You don’t want them running into each other awkwardly and creating tension!

By default in most programs, the leading is about 2 points larger than the point size of the text. 10/12 is the typical size for body copy in magazines and most other publications. Children’s books and materials for the elderly need special consideration and should be set at a larger size over all.

Coming Up…

This topic turned out to be a lot of fun to talk about and I just couldn’t stop writing! I thought I’d be nice to you, though, and break it up (three pages is a little much to read in one sitting, no?)

On Friday we’ll talk about alignment and justification, in addition to rivers, lakes orphans, widows and how to avoid them. But that’s not all! If you’ve missed it, we already talked quite a bit about typography, including matching type to the message, why you shouldn’t type in all caps and before that, serifs, baselines and x-height. We’ve still got to talk about the best fonts to round out your collection, too. Why don’t you subscribe to the RSS feed so you don’t miss it?

Technorati Tags: Graphic Design, Typography, Leading, Tracking, Kerning