2013

Text Handling 201
Line spacing is measured in percentages (120%) or points (12pt). You can either type
the line space value in the text box or click the arrows to nudge the values.
A percentage setting has the benefit of scaling accordingly if you change your font
size. If a percentage is applied to a line of text with more than one font size, the
largest font size is used. For example, if a line contains 90% and 100% text, the line
spacing is calculated on 100%.
Tracking
Whereas kerning (see below) changes the spacing between two characters, tracking
changes the spacing equally within a region of text. An EM is the width of the capital
letter "M" in the current font and font size. It is therefore relative to the font size and
not a fixed value.
1. Select the region to which you want to apply tracking.
2. Type a value into the TRACKING text box (values are in
1/1000ths of ems).
From the keyboard you can increase or decrease the tracking by pressing "Alt + Right
arrow", or "Alt + Left arrow". Each key press changes the tracking by 10/1000.
Kerning
Kerning lets you alter the space between two characters (so
affects horizontal spacing).
Most good fonts have auto-kerning which means they already move appropriate pairs
of characters together slightly, as you can see from this diagram:
Auto-kerning off Auto-kerning on Manual kerning
Kerning is measured in "ems" (enter values in 1/1000ths of "ems".) You can either
type the kerning value in the text box, or click the arrows to nudge the values.
It shares the same key shortcuts as above. If there is just a cursor, it alters the kerning,
but if there’s a selected range of text, then it alters the tracking. Each key press alters
it by 10/1000ths of a em.
Baseline shift
Baseline shift allows you to move part of a line up or down.
Positive values move the text upwards, negative downwards.
The baseline is the imaginary line at the bottom of characters.