The more I research this, the less of a clue I have as to which way to vote. The only thing I’m absolutely clear on is that the campaigns on both sides seem to be clouding everything. Eeech… what’s a citizen to do
Category Archives: Irritations
Kerning on The Mentalist [redux]
From 20 episodes, picked at random:
It’s that W and A that drive me nuts. Every episode I sit waiting for the delightfully brief title sting, then 30 seconds later I want to throw something at the screen. And, as you can see, they sometimes get it right.
The Mentalist itself is pretty good telly – well, it was; it’s gone off the boil a bit lately – early on there were lots of cleverly thought out gags and clues for the protagonist to riff on.
Kerning cheat sheet:
| Illustrator After Effects Photoshop InDesign |
Put cursor between letters and use Alt + left or right cursor keys |
| Fireworks | Put cursor between letters and use properties panel (ewww) |
| Apple Motion < 5.0.5 | Put cursor between letters and use Ctrl + left or right cursor keys |
| Apple Motion > 5.0.5 | Put cursor between letters and use Ctrl + Option + left or right bracket keys |
| Apple FCP X | Put cursor between letters and use Ctrl + left or right cursor keys (See this page for additional notes)
UPDATE: dunno when they changed it, but the keys are now Cmd-Alt plus the left or right square bracket keys [ and ]. |
Also see 8 simple kerning tips for some useful tricks. I like the upside-down one best – though squinting can often blur the words enough for you to judge the spacing properly.
Bad kerning: The Mentalist *UPDATED*
As part of my remit to kvetch about bad typography I had to mention the nasty type-it-and-fergeddit attitude by whoever does the titles for The Mentalist. Had to.
But look – we’re now 4 seasons in and someone heard me!
They’ve nudged the W and the A together to stop people driving trucks through. Look, here’s what it used to look like (for 3 whole seasons):
There are a few other kerning-based atrocities throughout the sequence (and Mr Yeoman’s credit is still a little inconsistent), but they fixed the worst one, yay!
Next question – isn’t it about time I was recognised financially for this service?
Bad kerning: The Mentalist
Bad kerning. On a prime-time network show.
And it’s one of the regular cast, so every episode we get to see that their graphics people are too lazy to nudge the W and the A together. Eeech.