Page 281 - Xara Designer Pro X17

Text Handling 281

width of the capital letter "M" in the current font and font size. It is therefore relative to the
font size and not a fixed value.

1. Select the region to which you want to apply tracking.
2. Type a value into the TRACKING text box (values are in
1/1000ths of ems).

From the keyboard you can increase or decrease the tracking by pressing "Alt + Right
arrow", or "Alt + Left arrow". Each key press changes the tracking by 10/1000.

Kerning
On the Advanced text Bar - Kerning lets you alter the space between
two characters (so affects horizontal spacing).

Most good fonts have auto-kerning which means they already move appropriate pairs of
characters together slightly, as you can see from this diagram:

Auto-kerning off Auto-kerning on Manual kerning

Kerning is measured in "ems" (enter values in 1/1000ths of "ems".) You can either type
the kerning value in the text box, or click the arrows to nudge the values.

It shares the same key shortcuts as above. If there is just a cursor, it alters the kerning,
but if there’s a selected range of text, then it alters the tracking. Each key press alters it
by 10/1000ths of a em.
Condensing and expanding characters (aspect ratio)

The aspect ratio (on the Advanced Text Bar) is the ratio between the height and width of
the text. Ratios over 100% make the text wider than normal; under 100% make the text
narrower.

To change the aspect ratio:

Type a new value into the ASPECT text box on the InfoBar and press "".

Or use the SELECTOR Tool to stretch or squash the complete line of text.

It is not recommended to use values below 80% or above 130%. Better to use a special
condensed variant of the font family if available. Alternatively use the tracking control to
adjust the spacing without distorting the actual shapes of the characters.

IMPORTANT: When creating websites, avoid changing text aspect ratio or tracking
because these changes will not be reflected in the text of your website.