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From: dhosek@frigga.claremont.edu (Hosek, Donald A.)
Newsgroups: comp.fonts
Subject: Re: How to define kerning for a soft font?
Message-ID: <8318@jarthur.Claremont.EDU>
Date: 7 Sep 90 18:18:41 GMT
References: <38743@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU> <12990@paperboy.OSF.ORG>
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[A question was asked about heuristics for determining kerning
between character pairs.]

The basic principle that guides both letter design and the
kerning is that for maximum readability, the vertical (or mostly
vertical, e.g., the sides of an "o") lines of a font should be
fairly evenly spaced. In general, this is going to be largely a
function of the character design itself (and it is worth noting
that many fonts supplied without kerning information have been
adapted to compensate somewhat for that loss).

Where kerning is most important in many fonts is between pairs of
capitals (e.g., LT, AV, etc.), although, my feeling is that
all-caps text should be letter spaced rather than kerned (i.e.,
rather than bringing AV closer together, pull II further apart).
Comparison of older titling in all caps with letter spacing to a
dtp monstrosity will indicate the difference in readability.

-dh

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