Working with Text > Setting text attributes > Setting character spacing, kerning, and character position |  |

Setting character spacing, kerning, and character position

Character spacing inserts a uniform amount of space between characters. You use character spacing to adjust the spacing of selected characters or entire blocks of text.

Kerning controls the spacing between pairs of characters. Many fonts have built-in kerning information. For example, the spacing between an A and a V is often less than the spacing between an A and a D. To use a font's built-in kerning information to space characters, you use the Kern option.

For horizontal text, tracking and kerning set the horizontal distance between characters. For vertical text, tracking and kerning set the vertical distance between characters.

For vertical text, you can set kerning to be off by default in Flash Preferences. When kerning is turned off for vertical text in Preferences, you can leave the option selected in the Property inspector, and kerning will be applied to horizontal text only. To set preferences for vertical text, see Creating text.

Character position controls where text appears in relation to its baseline. For horizontal text, character position moves characters up or down (above or below the baseline). For vertical text, character position moves characters to the left or right of the baseline.

To set character spacing, kerning, and character position:

1 | Select the Text tool.
2 | To apply settings to existing text, use the Text tool to select a text block or text blocks on the Stage.
3 | If the Property inspector is not already displayed, choose Window > Properties.
4 | In the Property inspector, set the following options:
| To specify character spacing, click the triangle next to the Character Spacing value and drag the slider to select a value, or enter a value in the text box.
| To use a font's built-in kerning information, select Kern.
| To specify character position, click the triangle next to the Character Position option and select a position from the menu: Normal places text on the baseline, Superscript places text above the baseline (horizontal text) or to the right of the baseline (vertical text), and Subscript places text below the baseline (horizontal text) or to the left of the baseline (vertical text).