From the course: Learning Type Design
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Fit
- [Instructor] The fit of a font is the careful trimming of the spaces on both sides of the glyph. Fit is managing the profiles of the letters. Careful fit can salvage a sloppy design, just as a careless fit can ruin a good one. The road to fit is trial and error. The destination is an even texture and an emphasis on the inherent rhythm of the letters. If you've managed to make a font where the stroke width, serif structure, and proportions are harmonized, then you simply need to extend that ethos to the spaces between letters. The trial and error comes in setting text in your font and observing the effect. It involves a lot of squinting and diagnosing. Since the adjustments reverberate throughout nearly infinite combinations of letters in a font, it can be frustrating at times. Fixing one problem will often reveal trouble elsewhere. The approach is pretty straightforward. Balance the side bearings of the vertical letters, like the n and h, and transfer those decisions to the other…
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