2658: Manual or Automatic Kerning Mar 28, 2022
Most computer programs will include features for kerning, i.e. adjusting the spacing of a print, but these may not always be as fitting as manual kerning. Computers can kern words and pages quickly and efficiently, but given how contextual this spacing may be, it may result in a visual effect that looks jarring. There are also problems of overkerning, where some letters in a word will slot together neatly, like <AV> but then the surrounding letters will not causing the word to look awkwardly spaced. If the <AVA> in the word <BRAVADO> would be set too close for instance, this would look jarring to a reading as if it's three distinct words, but without any kerning the center would look too spaced apart. Computers have a hard time recognizing what is more or less difficult to read so for expert detail, it is still often preferable to have a person behind the printing design.
2657: Problems with Kerning Computer Programs Mar 27, 2022
Kerning, the process of more deliberately spacing prints, as it related to the spacing of individual letters, can be fraught with difficulty when it is based on programs. While this helps to save space and make things look neater given that letters are not always of the same width, height etc., it can also cause issues. For instance, punctuation is notably difficult, especially when the letter has a section above the x-height that carries over to the right, like F, P, T, V, W, and Y. Many computer programs for lots of different fonts will kern the period <.> such that if fits underneath, but if there are other punctuation marks after, like <."> then these might end up overlapping with the letter due to oversight in the coded program.
2656: Kerning: The Basics Mar 26, 2022
Kerning is the process of tweaking the spacing and proportion of the individual letters in a proportional font for printing, meaning that the letters are not all uniformly sized and spaced, such as a typewriter font. There are multiple ways to do kerning, including only adjusting the spacing between pairs of letters, or looking at a text more globally to fit things neatly on full lines. As a result, there is over- and under-kerning, where the letter sets will either be too close together or too spaced apart. Before digital typing, the process of kerning on a printing press was arduous, but there are certain letter pairs, like AV most famously, that were usually kerned to not look so far apart. After digital word processors became more common, many fonts would be programed to adjust spacing for many more combinations.
2652: Style & Nub of the Long S
The long s ⟨ſ⟩ has a nub on the left side of it when typed. This is a lingering tradition from the blackletter typeface. While this nub likely made it easier to space for printing, it did make it more easily confused for the letter ⟨f⟩. The reason for the nub was not only stylistic though, aside from Italic fonts where it wasn't present, it alleviated the need to employ kerning. Kerning is the process of adjusting the spacing of letters when they would be bound to overlap or be too far apart when uniform, and there will be more on this topic here at a later date.