Specifying Spacing Between Characters

Kerning affects the amount of space to the right of one or more characters. Kerning options can be chosen and applied with either the Properties bar, Text menu, or Type palette. (See Formatting Text with the Properties Bar and Using the Type Palette.)

Tighten kerning to place characters closer together, and loosen kerning to space characters farther apart. Apply kerning settings before typing, or change the kerning for one character, a selection of text, or an entire text object.

Headlines often need manual kerning for visual balance.

Canvas X Draw can also adjust letter and word spacing for paragraphs following minimum, maximum, and desired guidelines that you set. (See Adjusting Letter and Word Spacing.)

Canvas X Draw does not apply kerning to text characters based on kerning pairs defined in a particular font. Kern individual characters by placing the insertion point and choosing Text | Kerning or using the Kerning controls in the Properties bar or on the Character tab of the Type palette.

In the Kerning submenu, you can choose a standard kerning amount: Very Tight, Tight, Normal, Loose, and Very Loose.

Kern characters in half-point increments using the Tighten and Loosen commands. Also, set a fine kerning amount using the Configure Fine Kern command. (See To Set the Fine Kerning Amount:.) Then, use the Tighten Fine and Loosen Fine commands to kern characters by that specified amount.

To Select Kerning Amount:

Choose Text | Kerning and select one of the following options:

To Set the Fine Kerning Amount:

1. Choose Text | Kerning | Configure Fine Kern.
2. In the Kerning Specifications dialog box, specify the amount of kerning (in points) for the Tighten Fine and Loosen Fine commands to apply.
3. Click OK.

See also:

• Applying Text Formats
• Positioning Tabs
• Adjusting Letter and Word Spacing