Dear Apparel Decorator for the US Soccer Team-

[middletownink]

Dear Decorator that has the honor of having the US Soccer contract-

      You are an embarassment to our industry. The next time you decorate a jersey for Landon Donovan please please take the 3 extra seconds to evenly space his name. Even an industry rookie understands that a "V" next to an "A" needs special attention. 

Kindly,

Megan

[Frog]

In the old days, we called this "letter spacing". Learned by many of us old-timers initially in our Junior High print shops hand setting type.

It's a pretty basic concept of judging "real estate" and the principle of the more stuff that would be close together (espedcially when the parallel lines of two letters are side by side, the more space is needed.

[Gabe]

maybe was a decorator overseas who did it, as we all know the U.S. Olympic team wore
uniforms made in china,
besides not a lot of Americans follow soccer

[BorisB]

Maybe it was small Slovenian revenge for kicking us out at last World Cup in South Africa.

Boris

[tonypep]

In the old days, we called this "letter spacing". Learned by many of us old-timers initially in our Junior High print shops hand setting type.

It's a pretty basic concept of judging "real estate" and the principle of the more stuff that would be close together (espedcially when the parallel lines of two letters are side by side, the more space is needed.

I believe the term is "kerning"

[Frog]

Never heard that term in 1963.

Even into the '70's when I was hand setting type for business cards, the shop called the technique letter spacing, probably because we literally positioned lead letters and spaces.

[Homer]

we have a soccer team!?

[Sbrem]

I set type in junior high too, with a composing stick. I don't remember "kerning" from that time in particular, (leading, sure) but learned it later in high school graphics arts class. In Illustrator, you simply put the cursor between two letters, and hold the option key and the left arrow tightens the space, and the right arrow opens it up. As said, even a wet behind the ears rookie should "see" that.

Steve

[blue moon]

I set type in junior high too, with a composing stick. I don't remember "kerning" from that time in particular, (leading, sure) but learned it later in high school graphics arts class. In Illustrator, you simply put the cursor between two letters, and hold the option key and the left arrow tightens the space, and the right arrow opens it up. As said, even a wet behind the ears rookie should "see" that.

Steve

for the Winblows users, use ALT key instead of Option. You can also use the up and down arrows to reduce the distance between the lines of text (while holding ALT key too).

another tidbit. . . kerning between particular pairs of letters is actually part of the font file. It specifies the distance depending on the shape of the letter. Who ever made the jerseys probably just never adjusted the poor spacing preset in the specs.

pierre

[ScreenFoo]

I can't even watch sports anymore because of that kind of stuff...  Probably ten thousand times more money in getting the sponsor on
contract than putting that sponsor's logo on a jersey.

Didn't think 'kerning' was too new a term, seeing as how it's defined by it's movable type origin--perhaps it's one of those terms that just got popular when armchair designers started using Pagemaker?     

[ScreenPrinter123]

I set type in junior high too, with a composing stick. I don't remember "kerning" from that time in particular, (leading, sure) but learned it later in high school graphics arts class. In Illustrator, you simply put the cursor between two letters, and hold the option key and the left arrow tightens the space, and the right arrow opens it up. As said, even a wet behind the ears rookie should "see" that.

Steve

DOPE...This will save me some time and now I can get that stupid text formatting toolbar out of my way!