Setleading

Theverticalspacebetweenlinesoftypeiscalledleading(rhymes
withsledding).ForRomantype,leadingismeasuredfromthe
baselineofonelineoftexttothebaselineofthelineaboveit.The
baselineistheinvisiblelineonwhichmostletterssit.Youcanapply
morethanoneleadingamountwithinthesameparagraph;
however,thelargestleadingvalueinalineoftypedeterminesthe
leadingvalueforthatline.
Note: WhenworkingwithhorizontalAsiantype,youcanspecify
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howleadingismeasured,eitherfrombaselinetobaselineorfrom
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thetopofonelinetothetopofthenext.

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Five-pointtypewith6pointleading(left)andwith12pointleading(right)

Settheleading

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Selectthecharactersyouwanttochange.Ifyoudontselect
anytext,theleadingappliestonewtextyoucreate.

IntheCharacterpanel,settheLeadingvalue.

Changethedefaultautoleadingpercentage
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1

ChooseJustificationfromtheParagraphpanelmenu.
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ForAutoLeading,enteranewdefaultpercentage.

Kernandtrack
Kerningistheprocessofaddingorsubtractingspacebetween
specificpairsofcharacters.Trackingistheprocessoflooseningor
tighteningthespacingbetweenthecharactersinselectedtextoran
entireblockoftext.
Note: ValuesforkerningandtrackingaffectJapanesetextbut
normallytheseoptionsareusedtoadjusttheakibetweenRoman
characters.
Youcanautomaticallykerntypeusingmetricskerningoroptical
kerning.Metricskerning(alsocalledautokerning)useskernpairs,
whichareincludedwithmostfonts.Kernpairscontaininformation
aboutthespacingofspecificpairsofletters.Someoftheseare:LA,
Lineandcharacterspacing
P.,To,Tr,Ta,Tu,Te,Ty,Wa,WA,We,Wo,Ya,andYo.Metricskerningis
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setasthedefaultsothatspecificpairsareautomaticallykerned
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whenyouimportortypetext.
Somefontsincluderobustkernpairspecifications.However,when
afontincludesonlyminimalbuiltinkerningornoneatall,orifyou
usetwodifferenttypefacesorsizesinoneormorewordsonaline,
youmaywanttousetheopticalkerningoption.Opticalkerning
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adjuststhespacingbetweenadjacentcharactersbasedontheir
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shapes.
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Kerningandtrackingoptions

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A.OriginaltextB.TextwithopticalkerningC.Textwithmanual
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kerningbetweenWandaD.TextwithtrackingE.Cumulative
kerningandtracking
Youcanalsousemanualkerning,whichisidealforadjustingthe
spacebetweentwoletters.Trackingandmanualkerningare
cumulative,soyoucanfirstadjustindividualpairsofletters,and
thentightenorloosenablockoftextwithoutaffectingtherelative
kerningoftheletterpairs.
Whenyouclicktoplacetheinsertionpointbetweentwoletters,
kerningvaluesappearintheCharacterpanel.Similarly,ifyouselect
awordorarangeoftext,thetrackingvaluesappearinthe
Characterpanel.
Trackingandkerningarebothmeasuredin1/1000em,aunitof
measurethatisrelativetothecurrenttypesize.Ina6pointfont,1
emequals6points;ina10pointfont,1emequals10points.
Kerningandtrackingarestrictlyproportionaltothecurrenttype
size.
Lineandcharacterspacing
Note: ValuesforkerningandtrackingaffectJapanesetext,but
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normallytheseoptionsareusedtoadjusttheakibetweenroman
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characters.

Adjustkerning
1

Doanyofthefollowing:

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Touseafontsbuiltinkerninginformationforselected
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characters,selectMetricsfortheKerningoptioninthe
Characterpanel.

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Toautomaticallyadjustthespacingbetweenselected
charactersbasedontheirshapes,selectOpticalforthe
KerningoptionintheCharacterpanel.
Toadjustkerningmanually,placeaninsertionpoint

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betweentwocharacters,andsetthedesiredvaluefor
theKerningoptionintheCharacterpanel.(Notethatif
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arangeoftextisselected,youcantmanuallykernthe
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text.Instead,usetracking.)
Note: PressAlt+Left/RightArrow(Windows)or
Option+Left/RightArrow(MacOS)todecreaseorincrease
thekerningbetweentwocharacters.

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Toturnoffkerningforselectedcharacters,setthe
KerningoptionintheCharacterpanelto0(zero).
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Adjusttracking

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Adjusttracking
1

Selecttherangeofcharactersorthetypeobjectthatyouwant
toadjust.

IntheCharacterpanel,settheTrackingoption.

Shiftthebaseline
UseBaselineShifttomoveselectedcharactersupordownrelative
tothebaselineofthesurroundingtext.Shiftingthebaselineis
especiallyusefulwhenyourehand-settingfractionsoradjusting
thepositionofapicturefont.
1

Selectthecharactersortypeobjectsyouwanttochange.If
youdontselectanytext,theshiftappliestonewtextyou

create.
Lineandcharacterspacing
2

IntheCharacterpanel,settheBaselineShiftoption.Positive
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valuesmovethecharactersbaselineabovethebaselineof
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therestoftheline;negativevaluesmoveitbelowthe
baseline.

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TypewithdifferentBaselineShiftvalues

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Turnfractionalcharacterwidthsofforon
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Bydefault,thesoftwareusesfractionalcharacterwidthsbetween
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characters.Thismeansthatthespacingbetweencharactersvaries,
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andwillsometimesuseonlyfractionsofwholepixels.
Inmostsituations,fractionalcharacterwidthsprovidethebest
spacingfortypeappearanceandreadability.However,fortypein
smallsizes(lessthan20points)displayedonline,fractional
characterwidthscouldcausetypetoruntogetherorhavetoo
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muchextraspace,makingitdifficulttoread.
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Turnofffractionalwidthswhenyouwanttofixtypespacingin
whole-pixelincrementsandpreventsmalltypefromrunning
together.Thefractionalcharacterwidthsettingappliestoall
charactersonatypelayeryoucannotsettheoptionforselected
characters.
1

Doanyofthefollowing:
Tosettypespacingfortheentiredocumentinwholepixelincrements,chooseSystemLayoutfromthe
Characterpanelmenu.
Tore-enablefractionalcharacterwidths,choose
FractionalWidthsfromtheCharacterpanelmenu.

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