Setting kerning

Kerning increases or decreases the spacing between certain pairs of letters to improve their appearance. Most fonts include information that automatically reduces the amount of space between certain letter pairs, such as "TA" or "Va." Fireworks auto-kerning uses a font's kerning information when displaying text, but you may want to turn it off at smaller point sizes, or when the text has no anti-aliasing. Kerning is measured as a percentage.

You can use the Property inspector or the keyboard to set kerning.

To disable automatic kerning:

• In the Property inspector, deselect Auto Kern. If the Property inspector is minimized, click the expander arrow in the lower right corner to see all properties.

To set kerning:

1. Do one of the following to select the text you want to kern:
   • Click between two characters with the Text tool.
   • Use the Text tool to highlight the characters you want to change.
   • Use the Pointer tool to select an entire text block. Shift-click to select multiple text blocks.
2. Do one of the following:
   • In the Property inspector, drag the Kerning pop-up slider or enter a percentage in the text box.

     

     Zero represents normal kerning. Positive values move letters farther apart. Negative values move letters closer together.

   • Hold down Control (Windows) or Command (Macintosh) while pressing the Left Arrow or Right Arrow keys on the keyboard.

     The Left Arrow key increases the space between letters by 1%, and the Right Arrow key moves letters closer together by 1%.

   TIP

   Hold down Shift and Control (Windows) or Shift and Command (Macintosh) while pressing the Left Arrow or Right Arrow keys to adjust kerning by 10% increments.