Kerning – Video Typography Essentials

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As you work with text, you’ll often need to modify the space between letters. Adjusting the space between individual letter pairs is called kerning and is typically adjusted one pair at a time. Why all the fuss you ask? Well, design pros always check their kerning because kerning the space between letter pairs produces a better optical flow, which can greatly improve the appearance and readability of your text. Knowing how to kern is learned by studying examples of professionally laid out text.

The top line of text has irregular gaps between letters, which creates a challenge when reading the line.
In Adobe Premiere Pro and other Adobe applications, kerning is simple to adjust.

  1. Click to place your cursor or move it using the arrow keys.
  2. When the blinking I-bar is between the two letters you want to kern, hold down the Option (Alt) key.
  3. Press the left arrow key to pull the letters closer or the right arrow key to push them farther apart.
  4. Move to the next letter pair and adjust as needed.


Be sure to check out the new book An Editor's Guide to Adobe Premiere Pro