Any problems with negative side bearings?

Glyphs
1

Hello there,

Quick question (since I have a j with a quite wide lower part):

Is it alright to have negative side bearings at all? I mean apart from the obvious issues (q colliding with j) will there be any compatibility issues after exporting the font?

Or is the recommended method to kern the j with all letter groups?

Thank you!

MD

2

There is no technological problem at all with negative side bearings. You probably would add kerning to avoid overlap but that is not required.

3

Glyphs with negative side bearings will sometimes get cropped if they are used at the start of a line of text (in some applications/browsers).
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/24787784/cropped-italic.png

This is usually seen in Script fonts or Italics.

Other than that little annoyance, it’s no problem.