Re: Char. spacing (kerning?) basics?
I have always used crude methods to get around screen font spacing problems, like choosing another font that looked better. Truthfully, I never understood why some characters are closer together than others, and how to fix the problem, not just avoid the symptom.
What application?
What operating system?
What monitor resolution?
What zoom factor?
Do you have font smoothing (anti-aliasing) turned on in your diplay options?
How can I fix a font's spacing on-screen, so that it is uniform.
You can begin by answering the above questions.
Can someone, in a paragraph or less, outline why some fonts' spacing look so poor, while others seem great?
Not in a paragraph or less, unless you are satisfied with the statement that some fonts work better for on-screen viewing than others.
Or give a reference to a web site
that could help me?
Microsoft Typography (http://www.microsoft.com/typography/default.asp) is as good a place to start as any.
Currently I'm using American Typewriter, and the spacing is uneven across a single line, using basic plain 14 pt text. What are my options?
Switching to Courier New might solve the problem (or not, depending on how you answer my questions).
Teach a writer how to get around a problem, you help him make his deadline. Teach him how to use fonts, and you feed his family : -)
Dave,
What makes a font work well on a monitor is a technique called hinting. Font-generation software can be coaxed into doing a crude job of hinting automatically, but good hinting requires skill, experience, and judgment. It is an expensive process to do well, and many font publishers don't want to pay designers enough to do it. People who design fonts tell me that there are really only a half dozen people in the world who are really expert at hinting--and you and I cannot afford their fonts. Consequently, fonts vary widely in their suitability for on-screen use.
If you find that a font looks great when you view it at 200% or 300% magnification but falls apart at 100%, then the problem is hinting,or it's your display settings, or it's the application you are using, or it's your operating system. However, it may still print well.
That's as simple an answer as I can give you (a woefully incomplete answer at that), and I couldn't in good conscience fit it into a single paragraph. Sorry.
Dick
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Char. spacing (kerning?) basics?: From: DaveC
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