5.2 | Character Settings

Key Terms

Font: The specific typeface applied to selected text.
Size: The height of the type, measured in points.
Font Style: A variant within a type family. Regular, Italic, Bold, Bold Italic, and so on.
Kerning: Adjusting the space between two specific letters to improve visual spacing (for example, tightening the gap in “AV”).
Tracking: Adjusting the spacing evenly across a whole range of selected characters, rather than one pair at a time.
Leading: The vertical space between lines of type, measured baseline-to-baseline.
Horizontal / Vertical Scale: Stretching or compressing type width-wise or height-wise as a percentage of its original proportions. Generally a technique to avoid, since it distorts the letterforms’ original design.
Line Length: The horizontal width of a block of text. A key factor in readability. A line that’s too long or too short both hurt reading comfort.
Baseline Shift: Moving selected characters up or down relative to the baseline without changing their size. Used for effects like superscript or subscript.

Today you’ll get hands-on with the Character panel: the single tool you’ll reach for most often to make type look intentional instead of just “default.”

Direct Instruction | Live Demo (~10 min)

“Watch what happens to the word ‘AVAILABLE’ when I kern just the A and the V closer together. > same letters, completely different feel.”

The teacher live-demos on sample text:

Kerning: tightening a specific letter pair.
Tracking: loosening or tightening a whole headline evenly.
Leading: adjusting the vertical rhythm of a paragraph.
Baseline shift: nudging one character up for a superscript-style effect.

Recall: What’s the difference between kerning and tracking? Analysis: Why does tightly tracked text often work for a bold headline but feel cramped and hard to read in a paragraph? Synthesis: If a client’s logo wordmark had one awkward letter gap, which single setting would you reach for first, and why?

Guided Practice | Fix-This-File (~23 min)

Character Panel Quick Reference

Complete the handout, three hole punch it, and keep it in your class binder.

⬇ Download Worksheet (PDF)

Fix-This-File (~13 min): open the provided paragraph. It has 3 planted errors (something like: two letters kerned too far apart, tracking cranked too tight to read, and leading so loose the paragraph falls apart). Find and fix all 3.
Apply to your own text (~10 min): type a short headline or quote of your own, and apply at least one deliberate kerning, tracking, or leading adjustment that improves it.

Horizontal and vertical scale are on the Quick Reference for a reason: avoid them. They stretch a typeface’s carefully designed letterforms out of proportion. If you want bolder or narrower type, switch to a different font weight or style instead.

Don’t be a wimp. A headline set 2pt larger than the body text isn’t contrast. It’s barely noticeable. Real contrast in type comes from stacking multiple clear differences at once: size (dramatically bigger, not slightly), weight (Light next to Black, not Regular next to Semibold), structure (thin monoweight strokes vs. bold thick/thin strokes), form (all caps vs. lowercase, roman vs. italic), direction (a long horizontal line vs. a tall stacked column), and color (warm vs. cool, or how dark a block of text reads from a distance). If a size difference alone isn’t reading as intentional, add a second or third contrast instead of just cranking the size further.

Exit Ticket / Wrap-Up (~5 min)

Screenshot your corrected Fix-This-File paragraph.

Which single Character panel setting made the biggest visible difference in today’s practice?

🗂 Organize: Put your corrected Fix-This-File paragraph and your own short text with intentional Character panel adjustments applied in your binder.

📤 Exit Ticket: Glow & Grow. On a scrap of paper, write about today’s work in at least 3 sentences (aim for 5): describe one Glow (something that went well) and one Grow (one thing you’d do differently or improve next time), explaining each with real detail, not just a phrase.

Stuck on how to start? Try: “My Glow today was ___, because ___. My Grow is ___. Next time I’ll try ___.”