04 February 2013

Kern Type

Typography is a vital part of any Graphic Design composition. Knowing basic and advanced techniques of kerning, leading, typeface use, contrasting typefaces (serif/sans, weights, etc.), sizing, arrangement, alignment and various other parts that make a successful design. For me, kerning is something that is always tricky, even when you 'optically' align the text on a project. Manual kerning is a great skill to have and very important so you don't look back on something and have it stick out like a sore thumb.

I have seen this site a while ago, but it came back up in one of my subscribed design blogs. Kern Type is a site that quizzes you on your ability to properly kern the word displayed. This fun game of kerning different words allows you to see your accuracy and displays the percentage of how well you did. Each word that appears also shows the font, typographer, and the year the font was created, which gives you some typeface knowledge for later use or sparking an interest to find out more about the typefaces! And they made this site multitouch friendly for all you iPad owners.

I personally learned a few things from the tricky character shapes in some typefaces of different words. How did you do?


3 comments:

  1. I also remember hearing about this website in the past but forgot to actually go check it out! Well I did this time & I think it is a very interesting interactive to see how well/comfortable you are with kerning text. It was also a very good reminder that I need to be more aware of & active with the kerning in my own work.

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  2. I've played this game so many times since I stumbled into it a while back! It's funny, I can never 100% it, even though they're the same words over and over.... But it's not completely my fault: the scoring is just plain cruel! Sometimes it'll slam you for having the whole word shifted just a pixel or two. And there is some measure of opinion involved in kerning typefaces anyway. Grumble grumble.

    Still, it's a fun way to become more aware of how kerning alters a word's appearance and why it's important. I definitely wish that kerning could be done so intuitively in the CS programs.

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  3. So funny you posted this. After I first saw this in type I played with it all the time because i just didn't really get kerning. It actually helped a lot! I felt like such a type nerd though because I found it wildly entertaining.

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