Lining up opening letters.

[Robin Springall]

I had to type a list today in Illustrator CS2 (Mac). Problem was that a couple of the lines started with a capital T, and the shape of the letter made the line appear to shift to the right (font was TNR 12pt). I'll try to show you what happened here, but it might not come out...

Opening the Cage
The Day of Reckoning
All Together Now
These Aren't Real Titles!

Actually, the forum software here lines up the initial letters much better! But if you type them in Frustrator, you'll see what I mean. Any recommendations on how to line 'em up better?

[ktinkel]

I had to type a list today in Illustrator CS2 (Mac). Problem was that a couple of the lines started with a capital T, and the shape of the letter made the line appear to shift to the right (font was TNR 12pt). I'll try to show you what happened here, but it might not come out...

Opening the Cage
The Day of Reckoning
All Together Now
These Aren't Real Titles!

Actually, the forum software here lines up the initial letters much better! But if you type them in Frustrator, you'll see what I mean. Any recommendations on how to line 'em up better?What you’re looking for is optical alignment, and it usually requires that you move the initial characters a bit in or out. Certain letters — especially T, A, V/W, and O (in some typefaces) — will need this.

[Mike]

Actually, the forum software here lines up the initial letters much better! But if you type them in Frustrator, you'll see what I mean. Any recommendations on how to line 'em up better?

InDesign offers optical alignment. Could you use that? Or, if the result has to be in Illustrator, set the text in InDesign, convert to paths and import.

[Robin Springall]

Thank you both - optical alignment sounds just the ticket, and I'll play with it in InDesign. Trouble is, I generally find these problems when the client is sitting next to me, we're looking at his masterpiece together, and the PDFs have to get to Hurricane Catarina (my printer) right away, so I generally have precious little time to either fix them or bodge them...

[ktinkel]

Thank you both - optical alignment sounds just the ticket, and I'll play with it in InDesign. Try InDesign’s optical alignment feature, then try playing with it yourself, by eye (using the kerning controls).

I say that because sometimes ID is wrong on these things. In the end, trust your own good eyes, not the computer.