Kerning a wordmark by hand

Why a wordmark always needs it

A typeface’s kerning table was written for running text at reading size, where a small imperfection between two letters is invisible. A wordmark is one word at 40 mm, 400 mm or 4 m, and every imperfection scales with it.

So: set the word, then fix it. Every logotype you admire has been through this, usually for hours.

The method that works: three letters at a time

Spacing is not a property of a pair. It is a property of the rhythm across the word. Judge it in threes.

1. Set the word in caps of the actual typeface at a large size: 200 pt on screen is fine.
2. Cover everything but the first three letters, with a rectangle or your hand.
3. Ask: is the gap on the left equal to the gap on the right? Not the distance: the area of white.
4. Slide the middle letter until they match. Move the frame one letter to the right. Repeat to the end.

Shuffling the whole word and looking at it “as a word” does not work, because your eye reads it instead of measuring it. Three letters at a time forces measurement.

Why it is area and not distance

A and V present diagonals, so the white between them is a narrow wedge. H and I present two verticals, so the white is a full-height rectangle. Set them at the same distance and the AV gap looks enormous.

The ranking, loosest to tightest, for the same measured distance:

• Two straight verticals (HI, IN, ME) need the most distance, because the white is already minimal.
• A vertical against a round (HO, DE) slightly less.
• Two rounds (OO, CO) less again.
• A diagonal against anything (AV, LT, Ya, To, VA) least, often dramatically so.
• Anything against a full stop, a comma, or a quotation mark: least of all.

The three tests

• Blur it. Squint, or apply a 3 px Gaussian blur to a screenshot in GIMP or Photopea. Even spacing becomes an even grey; a loose pair becomes a light hole and a tight pair a dark blob. This is the single most reliable test and it takes ten seconds.
• Upside down. Rotate the word 180°. You stop reading it and start seeing it.
• Reversed. Set it white on black. Light-on-dark letterforms appear heavier and the counters close up, so a wordmark kerned only on white will look tight when reversed. If both versions will be used, kern once for each and deliver both.

Doing it in each program

Before outlining, while it is still live text:

• Illustrator / InDesign: cursor between two letters, Alt+Left/Right. The step is set by Preferences ▸ Type ▸ Size/Leading and Kerning: default 20/1000 em, which is coarse. Set it to 5 for fine work. The Character panel shows the current value in thousandths of an em.
• Inkscape: text cursor between the letters, Alt+Left/Right moves by a small step; Alt+Shift+Left/Right by a larger one. The values go into the SVG as dx offsets.
• CorelDRAW: Shape tool (F10) on the text, select the node at the lower-left of a character, then arrow-key it, or drag the horizontal spacing arrow at the bottom right of the text block for overall tracking.

After outlining, you just move the glyph. Some people do all their kerning this way. It works and it is unrecoverable, so do it on a copy.

Metric, optical, and when each is right

• Metric kerning uses the font’s own table. For a well-made text face, this is the designer’s own judgement and is better than an algorithm.
• Optical kerning ignores the table and spaces by analysing the shapes. For a cheap or free display face with a thin table (and many are) it is a genuine improvement, and it is the sane default when you have mixed two faces in one line.

Illustrator and InDesign expose both in the Character panel. Inkscape and CorelDRAW use the font’s metrics and leave optical to you.

Record what you did

If the wordmark stays as live text in a master file, write the kern values down in the project notes: A→V −40, V→A −35, T→o −25. Somebody will need to reset it at a different size, and the numbers are in thousandths of an em, so they scale with the type rather than with the millimetres.