Go for consistent-looking letter spacing
by Cher Threinen-Pendarvis

This month's Corel Painter Wow! tip pertains to setting text in Corel Painter IX.5, and teaches two ways to adjust the spacing between letters: Tracking and Kerning. Tracking is the process of globally adjusting the space between letters and words to be looser or tighter overall. Kerning is the process of manually removing or adding space between pairs of letters so that the spacing is visually consistent.

This text was set in Meta Bold. The original text had "uneven" letter spacing (top), so it was converted to individual shapes and kerned to tighten the spacing to make it more consistent (bottom).

1. Setting Text. Choose the Text tool in the Toolbox and click anywhere on your image to set the type. You can change the font, the color, and the size of your type using the Text controls in the Property Bar.

2. Using Tracking. To adjust the Tracking, open the Text palette by choosing Window, Show Text. Select the type with the Text tool, and move the Tracking slider to the right to globally increase the space between the letters, or move it to the left to decrease it.

3. Using Kerning. To visually kern your text, train your eye to see the negative spaces between the letters. After kerning, the spacing should appear visually balanced.

To manually kern individual letters in Corel Painter, convert the text layer to shapes by choosing Convert Text to Shapes from the pop-up menu on the right side of the Layers palette. This will create a layer group filled with text shapes. Open the text layer group in the Layers palette. Using the Layer Adjuster tool, select a text shape that you want, and move it using the arrow keys on your keyboard.

Moving the selected letter "E" to the make the spacing appear visually consistent.

Good work! You've set text in Corel Painter and have practiced using Tracking and Kerning with your type.

Content and images: © 2006 by Cher Threinen-Pendarvis

An award-winning artist and author, Cher Threinen-Pendarvis has always worked with traditional art tools. A pioneer in digital art, Cher has created illustrations with the Macintosh® computer for two decades. She has been widely recognized for her mastery of Corel® Painter™, Adobe® Photoshop®, and the Wacom® pressure-sensitive tablet, and she has used these electronic tools since they were first released. Exercising her passion for the artist tools in Corel Painter, Cher has worked as a consultant and demo-artist for the Corel Painter developers. Her artwork has been exhibited worldwide, and her articles and art have been published in many books and periodicals. Cher holds a BFA with Highest Honors and Distinction in Art specializing in painting and printmaking, and she is a member of the San Diego-Museum of Art Artist Guild. She has taught Corel Painter and Photoshop workshops around the world and is the principal of the consulting firm Cher Threinen Design. Cher is the author of The Photoshop and Painter Artist Tablet Book: Creative Techniques in Digital Painting and all seven editions of The Painter Wow! Book. The Painter IX Wow! Book is the latest edition of this highly praised volume of techniques and inspiration.

To learn more about Cher, please visit her Web site at www.pendarvis-studios.com