From the course: InDesign: Typography
Unlock the full course today
Join today to access over 24,000 courses taught by industry experts.
Tracking - InDesign Tutorial
From the course: InDesign: Typography
Tracking
- [Instructor] Previously we saw leading, the space between the lines. Now we're going to move on to tracking, the space between the characters. Tracking has a close cousin, kerning. This is the distinction between the two. So tracking is when you are adjusting the space across a range of characters. Kerning, which we'll be covering in the next movie, is when you are adjusting the space between a pair of characters. So for example, if I select this text and then I use the keyboard shortcut for tracking, which is Option or Alt, and the left arrow, I'm tracking. If on the other hand I put my cursor between these two characters or any two characters, and I use the same keyboard shortcut, then I'm kerning. That's the distinction between the two. Now, we can use tracking for aesthetic reasons, and this is a very broad generalization, but if you are working with serif type, which is the top row, and you apply loose tracking to that, I think that is much more effective than loose tracking…
Practice while you learn with exercise files
Download the files the instructor uses to teach the course. Follow along and learn by watching, listening and practicing.