Free kerning templates

Thursday, 2 April, 2015

We all love kerning our typefaces, don’t we?

Free kerning templates

To ease your pain a bit and to give a bit of overview and a structure to work from I’ve put my kerning templates up on GitHub for you to download and use.

Kerning individual character pairs

What are they and how can I use them?

They are a bunch of text files with long lists of character combinations. The idea is that you use them when drafting the kerning of individual character pairs. Since the templates contains almost all the character pair there is this gets a lot easier compares to typing in your own pair by hand.

Here’s snippets of what the templates contains:


aaabacadaeafagahaiajakalamanaoapaqarasatauavawaxayazaA€A…A
A1A2A3A4A5A6A7A8A9A0A
A+A-AÐAÑA_A.A,A:A;A!aÓa#aÛa%A&A/A(A)A{A}A[A]A=A?A
aÁaÀa£A$A¢A´A@A©A¨AªA~A
aÔaÒaÕaÓaÜaÇaÝaÈa

babbbcbdbebfbgbhbibjbkblbmbnbobpbqbrbsbtbubvbwbxbybzbB€B…B
B1B2B3B4B5B6B7B8B9B0B
B+B-BÐBÑB_B.B,B:B;B!bÓb#bÛb%B&B/B(B)B{B}B[B]B=B?B
bÁbÀb£B$B¢B´B@B©B¨BªB~B
bÔbÒbÕbÓbÜbÇbÝbÈb

cacbcccdcecfcgchcicjckclcmcncocpcqcrcsctcucvcwcxcyczcC€C…C
C1C2C3C4C5C6C7C8C9C0C
C+C-CÐCÑC_C.C,C:C;C!cÓc#cÛc%C&C/C(C)C{C}C[C]C=C?C
cÁcÀc£C$C¢C´C@C©C¨CªC~C
cÔcÒcÕcÓcÜcÇcÝcÈc

and this …


aaabacadaeafagahaiajakalamanaoapaqarasatauavawaxayazaŒaŠaša
babbbcbdbebfbgbhbibjbkblbmbnbobpbqbrbsbtbubvbwbxbybzbŒbŠbšb
cacbcccdcecfcgchcicjckclcmcncocpcqcrcsctcucvcwcxcyczcŒcŠcšc
eaebecedeeefegeheiejekelemeneoepeqereseteuevewexeyezeŒeŠeše
fafbfcfdfefffgfhfifjfkflfmfnfofpfqfrfsftfufvfwfxfyfzfŒfŠfšf

but also this …


ona,   ona.    ona-a–a—a/ah   ono,    ono.   ono-o–o—o/oh    onb,    onb.    onb-b–b—b/bh   onp,    onp.   onp-p–p—p/ph    onc,    onc.    onc-c–c—c/ch   onq,    onq.   onq-q–q—q/qh    ond,    ond.   ond-d–d—d/dh   onr,    onr.   onr

… and a ton more.

How to use them

There are two ways of using those kerning templates.

  1. Copy and paste the contents of the files into InDesign and apply our typeface, adjust kerning, reproduce adjustments in FontLab, Glyphs, Fontographer, RoboFont or which ever font editor you are using.

  2. Copy and paste line by line into the metrics windows of FontLab, Glyphs, Fontographer, RoboFont or which ever font editor you are using and adjust kering there.

Please head over to the GitHub repo and grab a copy!

Fork “Kerning templates” on GitHub