User Guide

kerning pairs defined for that font. When unchecked, it
shows the characters without kerning applied to them.
The File button, also at the upper right of the window, is an
alternate way to enter text samples into the window. If you
press the File button, a standard file dialog box comes up
which allows you to choose a standard text file. After you
have chosen a file, the Metrics Window will display the first
line of that file.
You can navigate from line to line by using the little up and
down arrows located to the left of the File button. This
allows you to come up with particularly illuminating files of
text samples and run your fonts through them quickly and
easily, without having to type in all kinds of stuff over and
over.
Character display
The fun thing about the metrics character display is that all
the attributes of the characters can be modified
interactively with the pointer tool.
The “L” guide is for adjusting the left sidebearing (the
distance from the character origin to the beginning of the
actual character outline). The guide itself is situated at the
character origin. Simply click anywhere on the line with the
mouse button and drag to change this value.
The “R” guide does the same thing, but for the right side-
bearing (the distance from the rightmost part of the
character outline to the width of the character). The guide
itself is situated at the character width. Click anywhere on
the line and drag in order to change this value.
The “K” guide is for creating and adjusting kerning values.
In Fontographer, you kern the currently selected character
with the previous character. That’s why, when you select
Fontographer User's Manual
5: Metrics: Spacing and Kerning Page #12