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Optical vs Metric spacing

In design software like Illustrator and InDesign there is a palette drop down to choose between optical and metric spacing. Metric reads the spacing generated during a final stage of font creation by the font designer — if care was taken to customize kerning pairs. Whereas, Optical spacing uses an algorithm designed by Herman Zapf (of Optima and Palatino fame). Zapf built the algorithm to read the amount of color in a character and its counter spaces and produces calculated spaces between the characters.

If the font in question is a carefully designed font, then metrics will be the best option to select and only occasional custom kerning will be needed. If its an amateur/hobbyist font, then avoid the metrics and hope the optical produces reasonable results, but be ready to spend a lot of time correcting specific kerning pairs.

Galaxie Casseopeia

Charles Jenkins painstakingly took 2 years producing an amazing connecting brush script font called Galaxie Cassiopeia. Each letter has 7 tail alternates and 4 intro strokes. Take it for a spin. Notice how when you type character sets like “lll” and “lol” or “lal” how the joins reflow to make an appealing connection. This not only demonstrates the quality of the font, but showcases Opentype capabilities that weren’t previously possible in TrueType or PostScript.

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The more frequently type glyphs are seen (even in literature, display or digital), the more the personalities —whether pleasing or annoying — will catch attention. Sweat the details.

Guest Lecturer Charles Jenkins from Vllg.com

Charles Jenkins – Brilliant type designer behind the brilliance of the Blackberry font, Infinity used by ATT and Verizon – at various times, custom type for big magazines and a few other gems.

Future of type: will add personality in unexpected places.

Type is a community more than an industry.