Spacing between characters and lines: kerning, tracking, and leading



Leading is the spacing between lines of text. Kerning is the process of adding or subtracting space between specific letter pairs. Tracking is the process of creating an equal amount of spacing across a range of letters. Positive kerning or tracking values move characters apart (increasing the spacing from the default); negative values move characters closer together (reducing the spacing from the default).
Note: When you open a project that was last saved in After Effects 6.0, text in the project may lie differently than in After Effects 6.0 because of improvements in kerning behavior.
Tracking and manual kerning are cumulative, so you can first adjust individual pairs of letters and then tighten or loosen a block of text without affecting the relative kerning of the letter pairs.
Note: Values for kerning and tracking affect Japanese text, but normally these options are used to adjust the aki (spacing) between Roman characters.

Specify leading

 In the Character panel, do one of the following:

  • Choose the desired leading from the Leading menu .

  • Select the existing leading value, and enter a new value.

  • Drag the underlined leading value.

Specify kerning

You can automatically kern type using metrics kerning or optical kerning. Metrics kerning uses kern pairs, which are included with most fonts. Kern pairs contain information about the spacing of specific pairs of letters such as LA, To, Tr, Ta, Tu, Te, Ty, Wa, WA, We, Wo, Ya, and Yo. After Effects uses metrics kerning by default so that specific pairs are automatically kerned when you import or type text. Some fonts include robust kern-pair specifications.

For fonts for which metrics kerning provides inadequate results, or for two different typefaces or sizes in a line, you may want to use the optical kerning option. Optical kerning adjusts the spacing between adjacent characters based on their shapes.

You can also use manual kerning to adjust the space between two letters.

Alan Shisko provides an article and video tutorial about kerning on his Motion Graphics 'n Such blog.

  • To use the built-in kerning information for a font, choose Metrics from the Kerning menu  in the Character panel.
  • To adjust kerning manually, click between two characters with a type tool, and set a numeric value for Kerning  in the Character panel.
    Note: If a range of text is selected, you can’t manually kern the characters. Instead, use tracking.

Specify tracking

Tracking set to default value of 0 (left), Tracking set to -50 (center), and Tracking set to 200 (right)

 To specify tracking, set a numeric value for Tracking  in the Character panel.