Kerning doesn't work?

[Bob Stern]

I've never been able to get kerning to do anything. I've tried the Loosen command with the cursor between two characters or with two adjacent characters selected. Either way, the characters do not move apart, even if I apply the Loosen command repeatedly.

Does kerning only work with certain fonts? I've tried Times New Roman and Helvetica.

[martin]

Hi Bob- when you change the kerning, you want to have both (all) of the characters selected. Here's an example with your name loosened between one and four times, zoomed in to 400%:



As you can see, the effects are subtle. Really we should add a slider or something that makes adjusting the kerning easier, as repeatedly choosing the menu is a chore.

One tip: save a macro that alters the kerning a few times. Here's a super-loosen macro:

Code: Select all

$ii = 0
While $ii < 7
    Format:Kern:Loosen
    $ii += 1
End

[Bob Stern]

Thanks, Martin. However, I still think Loosen is not working consistently. For testing, I used your macro but changed 7 to 30 to make the loosening obvious. Selecting various amounts of text in a document, sometimes Loosen works and sometimes it does nothing. I even tried saving and re-opening a document to see whether it was merely a display issue, but the re-opened document did not show the effects of the kerning.

[martin]

What font was applied in the cases where kerning did not work? Can you submit a sample document via the menu Help > Send Feedback? Thanks.

[Bob Stern]

Done.

[martin]

Thanks Bob- I'm baffled by your file. There looks to be some kind of bug here, I'll have us look into it.