amiga | 6 years ago | 5 comments | 1,252 views
I'm using the default installed CreditRoll.bt file as a template (with a few mods) for my upcoming trivia contest, and see some odd kearning I can't explain. I realize the BOUNDS parameter will affect the overall spacing of a line, but here are two examples that I can't explain. In the first answer line in the attached pic, the "Th" is spaced normally, but in the third answer line, the same "Th" is spaced really close together. Each of those layers are clones of each other, just displaying a different XML data entry.
Does anyone know why the character spacing is different? BTW, I used Unicode UTF-8 encoding, and the show is using the default Arial Black and Arial fonts. Also, I haven't seen spacing inconsistencies like these in the first line (the question), only in the four duplicate "answer" lines.
Also, is there an easy way to get the first line to wrap to two lines in the event it is a long question, rather than compress to fit everything on one single line? I didn't see anything about that in the Dynamic Content help section.
Thanks for any help in advance!
With the 2nd slider of the BOUNDS property you can set the maximum height. BluffTitler automatically adds soft returns to fill the space:
michiel, 6 years ago
Kerning has nothing to do with XML.
Maybe you are animating the KERNING property in combination with the FLEXIBILITY property.
michiel, 6 years ago
Awesome! You are right Michiel, it was the Kearning property. As also in the original CreditRoll.bt file I used as a template for this, it was set to 1. When I changed it to zero for each text layer, all the characters aligned beautifully!
Now to go off and experiment with the magical setting for Bounds to get all the questions to look their best.
I'm going to use Komies's suggestion and make this a video so I can pause between questions, but I would really love it if you could consider making automatic pause points, with a hotkey resume, as well as Dynamic Content that wouldn't reset if paused mid-show. But I'm always thankful for EVERYTHING you do in this great program!
Thanks for the help!!!
amiga, 6 years ago
By setting the KERNING property to 0, you turn it off. This is not recommended. Fonts look much better with kerning. That's why the default value is 1.
And make sure to use METRIC KERNING in the font dialog (F6). This uses the kerning info from the font file: as the font designer has designed it.
Play around with letter combinations like AV and // to see what it does.
I think the issue with your show is that not all keys are set to 1.
michiel, 6 years ago
Well, right again, THANKS! When I changed KERNING to 0, it made them better than the original problem, but the real culprit was OPTICAL KERNING. When I turned KERNING back on as you suggested and switched all the fonts to METRIC KERNING (they were all set to OPTICAL KERNING), everything looked even better.
Now, are you interested in an invitation to an Australia Day Party being held in Florida? ;-) Talk about international diversity!
Thanks again Michiel!
Amiga
amiga, 6 years ago
