TypeTalk: Document-Wide Kerning

TypeTalk is a regular blog on typography. Post your questions and comments by clicking on the Comments icon above. If Ilene answers your question in the blog, you’ll receive one Official Creativepro.com T-Shirt!
Q. Is it possible to add kerns to a font used in a document so that the kerns are in effect for the entire document?
A. Yes, global kerning is possible, but only in QuarkXPress, not InDesign.
QuarkXPress Kerning Table Edit allows you customize a font’s built-in kern table for use in one or all of your QuarkXPress documents. When you change a kern value using the Kerning Table rather than individually using the Measurements Palette, the change affects every instance of that character pair within your QuarkXPress document(s). It does not affect the original font in your Fonts folder, or the font’s use in other applications. Even so, this feature can be invaluable when you’re setting lots of headings or large quantities of text where it’s impractical to make dozens of individual, manual changes.
Here’s how:
1. Go to Utilities > Kerning Table Edit.

2. Find the font you want to edit from the alphabetical listing.
3. Select the Plain version, and click Edit.

4. Select a kern pair from the list in the upper left, or type a pair of characters in the Kerning Pair field to its right. The pair will appear in the Preview below it.

5. In the With-Stream field, enter a value, or use the up and down arrow that moves in 10 unit increments. (Option-/Alt-click for single unit increments.)

6. When you’re satisfied with the result in the Preview, click Replace or Add.
7. When you are done, click OK, then Save.
The Cross-Stream field edits the vertical position of a character (locally done using baseline shift), such as for punctuation, symbols, ornaments, and the like.

You can export a revised font file from QuarkXPress and use it in other QuarkXPress documents, and you can import a previously created file.
Love type? Want to know more? Ilene Strizver conducts her acclaimed Gourmet Typography workshops internationally. For more information on attending one or bringing it to your company, organization, or school, go to her site, call The Type Studio at 203-227-5929, or email Ilene at [email protected]. Sign up for her e-newsletter at www.thetypestudio.com.

Ilene Strizver is a noted typographic educator, author, designer and founder of The Type Studio in Westport, Connecticut. Her book, Type Rules! The designer’s guide to professional typography, is now in its 4th edition.
  • mchak says:

    HI,

    Ever since switching to InDesign, this has been one of the very few things I have noticed that Quark does better. Do you know of any plugins that add this functionality to InDesign? Short of customizing the typeface, I know of no way to automatically kern pairs in InDesign on a document-wide basis. If InDesign let you apply kerning with a character style, then you could do it as a GREP style, but I’ve tried and it doesn’t take.

    Any ideas?

  • DBotma says:

    It’s great to hear you feature Quark’s outstanding typographic tools! I having long pursued excellence in typography, and even have a website dedicated to quality typography (www.kernprose.com).

    As a previous studio manager of a major Michigan Avenue, I have personally lamented the waning interest in quality typography. Using Quark’s Kern Table editor, we developed and libraried entire tables of kerned fonts, allowing us to import professional tables that would take hours to build. This created unparalleled quality and consistency.

    I have appreciated following your articles, and have learned much about the craft I love from them. It’s great seeing Quark get some of the press it deserves.

    Keep up the good work.

    DB
    [email protected]
    http://www.kernprose.com

  • Anonymous says:

    Ever since switching to InDesign, this has been one of the very few things I have noticed that Quark does better. Do you know of any plugins that add this functionality to InDesign? Short of customizing the typeface, sohbet I know of no way to automatically kern pairs in InDesign on a document-wide basis. chat If InDesign let you apply kerning with a character style, then you could do it as a GREP style, but I’ve tried and it doesn’t take.

  • Anonymous says:

    Hi is there a process of exporting the kern table values of all the fonts through a single click or creating a library!

    Also is thre a way of find out which font has been altered than the usual settings?

  • Anonymous says:

    As a previous studio manager of a major Michigan Avenue, I have personally lamented the waning interest in quality typography. Using Quark’s Kern Table editor, we developed and libraried entire tables of kerned fonts, allowing us to import professional tables that would take hours to build. This created unparalleled quality and consistency.
    I have appreciated following your articles, and have learned much about the craft I love from them. It’s great seeing Quark get some of the press it deserves.
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