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# Designing the space between characters
- URL: https://astrix-vellum.adrianoamalfi.com/designing-the-space-between/
- Published: 2026-07-22T14:01:38.000Z
- Updated: 2026-07-22T14:09:39.000Z
- Description: Most of a typeface is not the letters. A working note on sidebearings, and why the gaps are the real design.
- Author: Priya Raman
- Tags: Type

People assume a type designer draws letters. Mostly I adjust the air on either side of them. Get the sidebearings wrong and the most beautiful *a* in the world will not sit next to an *n*.

The letters are the vocabulary. The spaces are the grammar, and readers only notice grammar when it is broken.