Nothing in my manual

[Robert Smith]

Um… thanks; you have taken the trouble to kindly detail nearly all of the methods I came across whilst looking for the standard method.

[Bill Davis]

Robert,

The truth is that video typically has only rough kerning tools.

For good reason.

There’s little similarity between creating text on the astonishingly coarse pixel raster of a display – compared to laying ink on paper.

I can give you the ability to tuck a lower case “o” under that cap T till the cows come home. but unless you have enough pixels to put the latter where you want it in respect to the former – you’re sunk = and on a video raster, you just don’t have fine position capabilities on much below display type.

And when you ARE working in display type sizes, it’s typically easier just to make the T and the o individual elements and adjust them that way.

I know other programs allow “kerning” – particularly ones coming from companies with big “computer to text” backgrounds – but typesetting for the screen has only a passing resemblance to typesetting for the press.

And that’s one good reason why some of the traditional typesetters tools aren’t baked in to a video creation tool.

I am glad that you’re having fun exploring keyboard shortcuts – they are very powerful and it’s a lot of fun when you try a key combination and something interesting happens!

Enjoy the learning curve. It’s kinda like hiking a new trail. You never know what you’ll stumble into!

FWIW,

Know someone who teaches video editing in elementary school, high school or college? Tell them to check out http://www.StartEditingNow.com – video editing curriculum complete with licensed practice content.

[Bret Williams]

FCP and most apps work in a vector based type environment. No different than AE, Illustrator, or Photoshop. For the most part, FCP has the same text refinements as all of those. Has nothing to do with screen pixels or any of that. You can of course kern very precisely to your hearts content. You can adjust line spacing, tracking, baseline, etc. But what we don’t have is basic standard keyboard shortcuts. In the Adobe apps, for line spacing and kerning that keyboard shortcut is option+left/right/up/down arrow. You would place the cursor between two letters and use option arrow to widen or tighten. Or highlight a group and do the same to widen and tighten them all. Ditto for line spacing except you’d press option up/down arrow.

No reason that this can’t be implemented. It should. As it stands, if you end up with a font that needs a lot of kerning, I often try a slightly larger font size. Often fonts only seem to kern well at certain sizes. Beyond that, I’d click between two letters, and use the kerning slider in the type inspector. Then arrow over to the next letter, repeat. If you have one hand on the mouse, and one hand on the arrows on your keyboard, I think it’s just as fast. You might find it better to scrub the number in the inspector instead of the slider. Sometimes one is more sensitive than the other.

[Robert Smith]

Thanks Bill
The fact is a 72 dpi raster satisfies my clients kerning requirements and most traditional typesetters tools (excepting Elrod strip) have been available in their video counterparts since the Aston I learned on in the early 1980’s.

The suggestion to separate letters into individual elements would cause clumsy timelines missed deadlines and mistakes plus Andy Branner has painstakingly pointed out, several methods to access the comprehensive typesetting tools that are currently baked into FCPX .

In my bumptious opinion, those methods cannot be used in a professional environment as one does not look away from the typography when preparing text during a client attended session.
Routine keyboard actions for basic tasks are deeply ingrained and do not change lightly, we know what needs to happen when pressing a key – just need the active application to get on and do it.

[Robert Smith]

heh – why couldn’t i have said it nicely …like you did 😉

[Bill Davis]

[Bret Williams] “FCP has the same text refinements as all of those. Has nothing to do with screen pixels or any of that. You can of course kern very precisely to your hearts content.”

I’m not saying you can’t kern type in X.

What I’m saying is that if you try to kern small type – and the pixel resolution that you’re attempting to DISPLAY the result at is inadequate to display that kerning – then what’s the point?

Sure, you’ll get better results IF you push in on the type.

But at a functional level – changes to any spacial relationship that is finer than 1920X1080 (presuming you’re working on standard HD) is gonna be an exercise in futility.

As I noted, we’re making VIDEO here – not setting work up to run on a web press running 100 pound coated stock.

Which is precisely what the precision kerning standards of the print industry were originally established to facilitate.

Not at all saying don’t do it.

Just don’t kill yourself doing it in situations where it’s not going to make a lick of difference.

FWIW.

Know someone who teaches video editing in elementary school, high school or college? Tell them to check out http://www.StartEditingNow.com – video editing curriculum complete with licensed practice content.

[Bill Davis]

Robert,

All I can tell you is that for the past 20 years, I’ve sat in countless edit sessions with immensely capable art directors and designers – and over and over again, I’ve had to try to patiently explain that while I have enormous appreciation for their skills and dedication to quality – I’m steadfast in believing that when you come from one discipline (design and typesetting) and wish to master another (video creation) you simply have to learn when to hold on to the processes of the past and when to let them go.

The most powerful example for me was in coming to video from my days as a radio production professional. I had a whole array of “unbreakable” audio standards in my head designed to make sure that the audio work I did fell between pristine and immaculate.

But when I got to the video edit suite – I learned very quickly that a standard that’s proper for radio work – was NOT necessarily proper for audio for video.

I did not NEED $2000 pre-amps any longer. I did not worry about signal to noise ratio in the same fashion that I did when audio was my only focus. Because, frankly, if there was some significant traffic noise in my shot – AND actual traffic in the shot motivating the noise – AND I had a close up of the speakers face, the audience could easily decode meaning from not just listening to the SOUND of what was being said as was the task in radio, but SEEING the lips, facial expressions, body language and totality of the scene.

I’m not arguing against standards here. I’m arguing against presuming that a standard is a standard is a standard across different specific situations.

If you want to continue to kern your type for display on a TV set or Computer screen to sensible print norms using thousandths of an m-space as your grail – then knock yourself out.

I’m still going to consider that you haven’t fully made the switch in your thinking from what matters in your last area of expertise to your new one.

I might be totally wrong about that – and you might be an excellent video producer. And you might know far more than I do about the topic at hand. (Given I once owned an ad agency and supervised more print work than I’d care to recall!)

But I still feel it’s not enough to know HOW to do a thing. It’s equally important to know WHEN to bother.

THAT is my point.

FWIW.

Know someone who teaches video editing in elementary school, high school or college? Tell them to check out http://www.StartEditingNow.com – video editing curriculum complete with licensed practice content.

[Robert Smith]

[Bill Davis] “‘m still going to consider that you haven’t fully made the switch in your thinking from what matters in your last area of expertise to your new one.”

To quote : [Andy Branner] “Um…”
please recall i’m the one whose TV kerning expertise is satisfied* – you considered separate objects for cap T and lower case o.

*barring the query that opened this thread; What is the keyboard short cut for FCPX that lets one kern text in a similar manner to other professional video production tools ie; with the industry standard left/right arrow keys ? btw. It was kindly confirmed that no such facility exits currently.

[Martin Curtis]

Not as convenient maybe as keyboard shortcuts, but I find the Apple Magic Mouse to be a brilliant little device*. For kerning, I can slip the cursor between 2 letters, click on the kerning number to the right of the slider, and then use the mouse to slide up and down kerning values while watching the screen that the text is on, until it is “just right”. Kerning values move in whole numbers, while holding down the option key moves the values in tenths.

(* First Apple mouse I have like since Apple’s ADB Mouse 2)

[Robert Smith]

thanks for that useful tip Martin.