Kerning Pairs Question

Hello Friends,

I’ve just designed my very first font with Glyphs and it just works great but I couldn’t figure out how I do kerning pairs although I read many posts and even watched tutorials.

Here is what I do:

  1. I open my font and double click a letter.
  2. I choose Text tool and write my pair (Ex. Ta)
  3. I refine the kerning by simply moving the second letter closer to the first letter.

Then I realize that it doesn’t only apply to the specific pair (Ta), but applies to the second letter (a) universally. So when I try a different pairing with the second letter (like Pa, Ca, Ma, etc.), it looks bad.

Would you please help me on how I can set the kerning only for a specific pair (Ex. Ta)?

Thank you!

(PS: I use Glyphs 2.4.1)

You are doing it wrong; you should not move either letter. Try the following instead:

  1. Type the Ta, then place your cursor between the pair;
  2. In the gray panel at the bottom of your screen, on the left side where it reads “Kern”, type the kern value you desire, i.e. -25 or whatever looks best;
  3. Doing so will set kerning for that pair only.

It can get more complicated than that when you get into groups, but for simple pairs it will work. Do more reading in the handbook and the tutorials.

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Hi George,

Thank you for your detailed reply.

I did exactly what you said (or I think I did) but it didn’t work.

  1. I typed the Ta

  2. Placed my cursor between the pair

  3. On the grey box, I typed the kern value I’d like

  4. Then I closed that tab and opened another letter to try how ‘a’ acts and realized that it affected the whole letter ‘a’ again

What do you think I’m missing here?

Thanks again for your help and efforts.

Did you remember to move the /a back to its original position?

I didn’t know that I had to :slight_smile: And I don’t know how I can do it!

When I change the kern value, the width of the container of the letter changes, and when I move it back, kerning gets back to its original value.

Probably I’m doing something terribly wrong but… What is it… :blush:

Ah I’m sorry, I think I figured it out.

It sounds to me that you’re changing the number which shows to the left of the character. That is not the kern value; that is your left sidebearing value.

Put your cursor over the word “Kern” and click once which will open up a box. That is where you type in the kern value. Be sure and correct the /a position first though.

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Yes George, that was exactly what I did wrong :slight_smile:

Thank you so much for your time. It just works just great!

Ah by the way, you can download the font from this page if you want to check it:
https://www.behance.net/gallery/52798865/Atiba-Font

I’ll replace the download link with the new once I fix this ‘Ta’ issue :wink:

Thanks again!