Word Spacing?

[Daniel Baars]

Unfortunately your guess is not correct: you can only set the character spacing there.

[First Last]

Isn’t it called leading and kerning?

Dave’s right, it’s in the character panel.

Production Associate
Bend, Oregon, United States

[Daniel Baars]

No, word spacing is not the same as leading or kerning.

From Wikipedia:
Leading refers to the amount of added vertical spacing between lines of type. Kerning is the process of adjusting letter spacing in a proportional font. Word spacing is the process of increasing or decreasing the space between words.

[Adolfo Rozenfeld]

Daniel: I have good news for you.
But before, a bit of bad news: After Effects doesn’t offer direct access to word spacing in its’ paragraph setting options.

Now, the good news: it doesn’t offer direct access, but it still supports it.

If you bring a Photoshop text layer that has your desired word spacing, and then convert it to editable text (just in case, select the Photoshop text layer and go to Layer > Convert to editable text), then AE will honor the word spacing in the PS text layer when it becomes a “native” AE text layer.

Bear in mind that word spacing is an option that you can only use in Photoshop when you set area/paragraph text (for example, drag a marquee with the text tool) then pick one of the forced justification options and finally set word spacing in the justification options in the fly-out menu in Photoshop’s paragraph panel.

Pretty good, isn’t it?

There are a bunch of amazing type features that AE supports even if it doesn’t give you direct UI access. You can still have them if you bring them in Photoshop text layers and convert to editable text.

Adolfo Rozenfeld · Adobe

[Adolfo Rozenfeld]

Anything that could be useful to you would make a good feature request, especially if you explain why is it important to you.

I intend to write an article on the amazing cool possibilities that are hidden in the text engine. But first I have to work on the space where such an article would appear 🙂

Adolfo Rozenfeld · Adobe

[Daniel Baars]

Hello Adolfo,

Thanks so much for your reply. Very useful information!

Regards,

Daniel Baars

[Frank Ha]

in this great tutorial you can see how spaces between words can be selected and controlled with the tracking animator
Vimeo Video

[John-henry Keenan]

You can change the amount of any space by placing the blinking text cursor in it and hitting option-left/right arrow. Obviously that isn’t a great solution for a ton of text, because each word has to be done individually, but it works, and it’s quick and easy for just a few words.

[Rob Johnston]

There actually is a way! Add a tracking animator, toggle down Range Selector and Advanced. Change Based on “Words” and down in Mode change to “Subtract”. Now your Tracking amount should adjust word spacing.

[Roei Tzoref]

Thanks Rob! that does it. also explained in the tutorial Frank posted.

Roei Tzoref
2D/VFX Generalist & Instructor
♫ AeBlues Tutorials ♫
http://www.tzoref.com