When you need to kern many similar glyphs at once, like
Á , you can now save much time by linking the kerning values of all accented glyphs to a single one, like the original
So once you have kerned the two pairs
VA , all the other pairs like
VÁ will be automatically created. How cool is that? 😀
Now how about linking only the left sides of your
Q with the kerning values from your
O - but only when it's the second letter of a kerning pair, like
Well, kerning groups can also be used to constrain a single side of glyphs. For instance, you can link all kerning values related to the left side of the glyph
Æ to the pairs ending with an
VA , so you don't have to kern
Create kerning groups
The kerning table now contains 2 tabs, one for Pairs and one for Groups.
We recommend to start creating your kerning groups before making kerning pairs in order to avoid duplicate work.
- A kerning group is created when you assign a specific character (the group master) to the left side or the right side of another glyph, based on their shapes' similarity.
- A kerning group starts having an impact when you create a new kerning pair (the master pair) that involves the master character.
- All the group members will then get the same kerning value, and you can view all the sibling pairs that have been generated by clicking on the + sign on the left side of a master pair.
In other words, you can tell Fontself that the left or right side of a glyph should get the same kerning value as another character, thus leading to precise adjustments.
Kerning group exceptions
If you need to apply a different value for a specific kerning pair that is part of a group, you can unlink the value from the master pair by clicking on the lock icon:
Ok, so which groups to create?
Well, that will highly depend on the design of your typeface, but here are a few tips.
Pairing with a rounded group master
O: C G Q
o: c d e g q
O: D Q
o: b p
Pairing with accented characters
For capitals, the grouping can be pretty straightforward:
A: Æ Á Â Ä À Å Ã
A: Á Â Ä À Å Ã
Due to kerning issues with lowercase accented characters - like
Tä - you might have to split a group in two, with the non-accented character like
a serving as a first group master, and an accented character like
ä as a second master for the accented lowercase characters.
ä: á â ä à å ã
ä: á â ä à å ã