User Guide

in the Metrics Window in an unkerned state.
Now we’ll apply Auto Kerning, with a slider value of “60,”
which yields this:
Fontographer’s Auto Kerning has created
a “To,” “Wa,” “Yo,” and “AV” pair. Remember, these are
only the characters that are currently displayed in the
Metrics Window, there are other kerning pairs. Note that
Fontographer did not create an “oW,” “aY,” or “oA”
kerning pair. That is because in the Easy mode,
Fontographer tries to kern only the more useful pairs; you
don’t usually see a lowercase letter immediately followed
by an uppercase letter, so it didn’t create a bunch of
unnecessary kerning pairs. (This behavior may be
overridden. The controls for this are located in the
Advanced mode of the Auto Kerning dialog.)
Just for comparison’s sake, here are the resulting kerning
pairs for a slider value of “20”:
With Fontographer’s Auto Kerning, you can try different
values and see what you get, just like with Auto Spacing.
Also like Auto Spacing, you’ll find a ton of hidden ability,
conveniently tucked away in the Advanced mode. The
controls in the Easy mode are suitable for 90% of our
customers. Don’t feel obligated to wade through the
Advanced mode parameters unless you really feel compelled.
Important: To get the best results, you should Auto Space
your font first, and then Auto Kern it.
The Metrics Window
Since most metrics issues involve how characters look in
relation to one another, you might expect there to be a way
of simultaneously viewing characters from within
Fontographer. There is, and it is cleverly called the
Fontographer User's Manual
5: Metrics: Spacing and Kerning Page #10