Designing the space between characters
Most of a typeface is not the letters. A working note on sidebearings, and why the gaps are the real design.
1 min read
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.
