Kerning text

Kerning alters the horizontal space between two adjacent characters. There are two types of kerning:

Automatic kerning (or "auto-kerning"). If all characters are spaced the same distance apart, some character pairs such as "AV" look wrong. To correct this most (but all) fonts have in-built "kerning pair" information that adjust the spacing for particular pairs of characters. (Notice how "AV" overlap each other - that is the effect of auto-kerning.)

Manual kerning. With this, you have full control over the distance between characters by inserting a 'kern' character. You can use manual kerning for special effects (such as overlapping characters).

To enable automatic kerning

1. Choose the Text Tool.

2. Select Automatic kerning.

Notes:

Not all fonts include kerning pair information.

Auto-kerning applies to the entire text object. You cannot auto-kern just part of a text.

Xara LX does not auto-kern where text changes between regular and bold or italic. If necessary, use manual kerning.

To manually kern text

1. Choose the Text Tool.

2. Click between the two characters you want to kern. This inserts the text cursor.

3. Click the buttons on the Kerning control on the right hand side of the Text Tool Infobar.

Kerns are measured in thousandths of em's with positive values moving characters apart and negative values moving them closer together.

Notes:

You can also set the kerning by typing a value into the kerning field and pressing RETURN.

To remove the kern, delete it just like any other character.

To change the size of a kern, just click between the two characters and change the value.