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Understanding Spacing

Understanding Spacing
Typography is not just about the font that you choose - it also includes the way the type appears on the page Spacing is a big part of the look of the page, and adds a professional appearance to the document Letter width Letters within a font are not all the same width (for example, w is wider than I Proportional fonts - spaced according to the size of the letter Monospace fonts - each letter is assigned exactly the same amount of space Fonts with narrow letters are easy to read; wide letters are difficult

Tracking & Kerning

Tracking - the amount of space between letters in a word Kerning pairs - sets of letters designed to be spaced closely together because they look better that way
Capitals T,V,W and Y look better closer to other capitals
Most fonts automatically kern these letters You can manually set kerning with DTP software

Em/En Space
DTP software allows you to insert an em or en dash Em dash - a dash the width of a capital letter M in the font and point size being used En dash - half the size of an em dash, is the width of a capital letter N in the font and point size being used

Spacing Conventions
End Punctuation (periods at the end of sentences)
With computers, additional spacing, based on the width of letters, is automatically built into the end of one sentence and the beginning of the next
Dont space twice after periods, colons or question marks

Tabs- places on a ruler used to line up text

Since most DTP fonts are proportional, its impossible to line up text by spacing

Widows and Orphans How lines of text appear at the ends of paragraphs
Widow - when the first line of a paragraph appears by itself at the bottom of a column or a page
Keep 2 - 3 lines of a new paragraph together

Orphan - when single lines or parts of a sentence appear alone at the top of a new column or page

Widows & Orphans