-
How to change the character’s tracking in photoshop to a condensed percentage value?
Hi there,
I was told to use a specific font with a 80% condensed tracking. How do I reach those 80%? In Photoshop CS5 I find this palette with a possibility to enter tracking values but I don’t know what unit that is? I believe it’s not percent because when i drop down the tab I find values up to 200.
Anyone knowing how to reach a 80% condensed tracking? If you know how it’s made in Final Cut Pro 7 I would be happy as well.
-
1 Reply
-
Okay, tracking and kerning are a weird sort of creature. The units express a percentage of the em space (the width of the letter M which is generally a fairly wide letterform) for that font. This varies from font to font, of course. Kerning is for adjusting the width for specific letter pairs and tracking is the same, but expressed for the entire line or selection of text with that font. So, if you track 80% down, you are reducing your normal amount of zero to -80 (-100 would be a full em space). Depending on your font, though, this may jumble up some of the letters. Also, be sure you aren’t just condensing the type horizontally (the “T” over the left-to-right arrows) which would be 20% of the normal width (this is a stretch and has nothing to do with kerning or tracking). Finally, if you track to -80, you may need to go back to individual letter pairs and re-kern so the type is legible and readable.
Post results if you can. What font are you using?
Save early. Save often.
Jonathan Ziegler
http://www.electrictiger.com
520-360-8293
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up