Manual Kerning ?

[Igull]

Is there a simple way to manually kern between characters?
I've tried the character panel, but I find it all a bit agricultural
In AI, I've always just used option + right or left arrow to increase or decrease the kerning (space).
I have RTFM, and trawled the forum, but can't find an easy answer - my sincere apologies if I've missed this

Neil

[b77]

@Igull Should be Control-Option-Comma to decrement and Control-Option-Period to increment.

[Boldline]

@Igull On a related note, spacing the words themselves (as opposed to kerning individual letters) is Control-Option-Left arrow to decrement and Control-Option-Right arrow to increment.
neither is as simple as the option in Illustrator, but after doing it a few times, I was able to memorize both and it's just as easy now using the extra keys

[VectorStyler]

@Igull The shortcuts are different (Control-Option-Comma) I will try to fix this.
In the Character panel it is called tracking and it is next to the "Ta" icon.

[b77]

@Boldline Which are the shortcuts for kerning and tracking in AI?

[Igull]

@b77 said in Manual Kerning ?:

@Boldline Which are the shortcuts for kerning and tracking in AI?

On Mac, kerning is option + right or left arrow to increase/decrease the kerning space.
For tracking, select all the text and use the same command - this does all the text at the same time - increases/decreases the same spacing to all the text.

Neil

[Igull]

@b77 @Boldline @VectorStyler
OK, bit of a handful to remember

I can see why comma and period are used as the < > symbols are on the same keys (in Mac anyway :-).
I'm sure folks can remember all these commands if they use them a lot though - start to run out of fingers in a while

However, I have to say that the AI keystrokes make it easier, just have to remember one set of two keys and either select the kerning space or the whole text.

Thanks for the info, I'll get on with this odd job

Neil

PS Can't ever remember using the ctrl key on mac for anything other than the contextual menu ?

[b77]

@Igull You can download this shortcuts table, and clicking the ︎ Shortcut button at the top will sort it so you can see all the shortcuts that include the Control key (there are a few):

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/9g01l3la6nv5h1t/AAAF5kWrRhXamcsDlQEOwlh7a?dl=0

[Igull]

@b77 said in Manual Kerning ?:

You can download this shortcuts table, and clicking the ︎ Shortcut button at the top will sort it so you can see all the shortcuts that include the Control key (there are a few):

Thanks for that, I'll check it out.

I have to say that I've destroyed a load of the supplied keyboard shortcuts to suit my own preferences (one of the huge benefits of VS ), but the list can at least give me an idea of what the more obtuse ones are.

Neil

[Igull]

@Boldline said in Manual Kerning ?:

spacing the words themselves (as opposed to kerning individual letters) is Control-Option-Left arrow to decrement and Control-Option-Right arrow to increment.

I've just been playing with these, this is spacing between words (I can't for the life of me remember the correct typography term) , someone else mentioned tracking which is a different animal, that's the spacing between all the selected characters as opposed to kerning which is individual adjustment between characters.

Neil

[VectorStyler]

@Igull said in Manual Kerning ?:

someone else mentioned tracking which is a different animal

Yes, tracking also exists. The shortcuts for it will be fixed.

[b77]

@Igull The shortcut for tracking is the same as the one for kerning (Control-Option-</>), and here it works.

If you simply select a text object (with the Select/Transform tool), tracking can be adjusted directly — no need to double-click it to enter text editing mode and select all the characters.

With kerning it works only after you enter text editing mode and place the insertion cursor somewhere between two letters, or select some letters).

[Igull]

@b77 said in Manual Kerning ?:

If you simply select a text object (with the Select/Transform tool), tracking can be adjusted directly — no need to double-click it to enter text editing mode and select all the characters.

LOL, I've just tried that in AI, I've done that all these years and never knew

Ever day is a learning day

Neil

[b77]

@VectorStyler Now that 1.1.052 is out with modified shortcuts, I edited the shortcuts in the Sortable Shortcuts files for both Mac and Windows, and I found that on Windows you can change tracking & kerning with Alt-Left/Right, while on the Mac it's Control-Option-Left/Right.

So basically Option-Left/Right selects text on the Mac, while on Windows it adjusts tracking & kerning.

Is there a way to unify these — make it work the same on Mac and Windows?

(Unless the Windows file I got is wrong here?).

[VectorStyler]

@b77 The problem is that the Option-Left/Right are standard MacOS shortcuts. We can customize these, but it is common in all mac apps.

[b77]

@VectorStyler Yep, I thought about that. Which means AI uses them for kerning anyway?

[VectorStyler]

@b77 said in Manual Kerning ?:

Which means AI uses them for kerning anyway?

could be, but they also changed other standard shortcuts

[Igull]

@VectorStyler et al

Here on 052, ctrl+option+ left or right arrow doesn't kern here on my Mac - it's still just the same as before ctrl+option + < or > (period/comma) ?

Edit: I just realised that of course, I have my own prefs set, and don't resort to the default doh

Is this something that can be simply changed in keyboard shortcuts rather than having something hard coded into the app ?

Edit: I just answered my own question It can easily be changed in keyboard shortcuts (LOL, I just noticed that there's a keyboard shortcut for keyboard shortcuts, how ironic is that ), issue resolved (for me at least, my keyboard shortcuts are completely bastardised to my own preferences anyway). What confused me was that the keyboard command was increment/decrement tracking and not kerning - which I couldn't find :-). It does both as discussed before - depending on whether all the text is selected or you're in between two characters.
Don't you just love that VS can be maltreated in this way

Neil

[Igull]

@b77 said in Manual Kerning ?:

Is there a way to unify these — make it work the same on Mac and Windows?

See my answer above

Neil

[b77]

@Igull I don't use Windows, but I was just wondering if having the same shortcuts on both platforms would not be better.

(Yes, I know the shortcut can be customized — I'm just discussing what would be the best defaults).