Why Does My Font Spacing Look Weird? (And How to Fix It)
You drew your letters, built the font, installed it, and something just looks wrong. Letters are crashing into each other, or there are big gaps between certain pairs, or the text looks vaguely uneven without you being able to say exactly why.
This is extremely common. Font spacing has three distinct problems, and they each look similar on the surface but have different fixes. Here's how to work out which one you're dealing with.
The Three Culprits
1. Character Spacing: The Space Built Into Each Letter
Every character in a font has a Space Before and a Space After. These are the small buffers of padding on the left and right sides of the character. Think of it as the gap that sits inside the character slot, to the left and right of the actual strokes.
If these values are too low, letters will be packed tightly together with no breathing room. If they're too high, there are big gaps between every letter.
The key word here is every. If your problem looks consistent across the whole font (all letters too close, or all letters too far apart), it's likely a spacing issue.
How to fix it in FontCraft: Go to the Refine page and adjust the Space Before and Space After sliders for each character. A typical starting point is around 50–100 font units on each side for a standard letter. Rounded letters like o, c, and e usually need slightly more space than narrow straight letters like i or l.
Adjust one letter first (say, the lowercase n) until it looks right. Then use that as a reference point for the rest of the alphabet.
2. Specific Pair Problems: Letters That Clash in Combination
Kerning is the concept of adjusting space between two specific letters. Even if your overall spacing looks right, certain letter combinations create awkward visual gaps or collisions because of their shapes.
The classic examples:
- AV: the angled sides of A and V create a visual gap between them
- To: the crossbar of T hangs over the following letter, creating apparent extra space
- Wa: the W's angle and the a's left side don't sit together comfortably
- LT: the L's horizontal foot and the T's crossbar leave a large gap
Pair problems look inconsistent. Most of your text looks fine, but certain specific combinations look wrong. That inconsistency is the giveaway.
[SCREENSHOT: FontCraft Refine page showing Space Before and Space After being adjusted for a character that's part of a problem pair, with a word preview showing before and after]
How to fix it in FontCraft: Go to the Refine page. For any letter combination that looks too close or too far apart, adjust the Space After of the first letter, the Space Before of the second, or both. Small changes matter: a reduction of 20–50 font units usually fixes most pairs.
See the full guide to kerning and spacing for a detailed walkthrough.
3. Baseline Shift: Letters Sitting at Different Heights
The baseline is the imaginary line that letters sit on. When you type a word, all the letters should rest on the same baseline. If different characters were drawn at slightly different heights, some will appear to float above the line and others will sink below it.
This one looks like bouncing text. Certain letters seem higher or lower than their neighbours, in a way that has nothing to do with horizontal spacing.
Baseline issues almost always come from the drawing phase. When you drew a letter, you may have placed it too high or too low in the canvas relative to the baseline guide line.
How to fix it in FontCraft: Go to the Refine page and use the Vertical Alignment slider for the character that looks misaligned. This shifts the letter up or down without you having to redraw it. Adjust until it sits on the baseline consistently with its neighbours.
If multiple letters are misaligned, check your drawing process. Make sure you're consistently resting letters on the baseline guide in the canvas when you draw them.
How to Diagnose Which Problem You Have
Before opening any settings, type these specific words into your font preview and look at what happens:
AVATAR: tests capital A-V and A-T combinations. If the spaces between those letters look uneven compared to the rest, it's a pair spacing issue.
Waterfall: tests W-a, a-t, and t-e-r combinations. If the text looks generally too crowded or too loose throughout, it's a spacing issue. If specific pairs look wrong while the rest looks fine, it's a pair problem.
Typography: tests T-y, p-o, g-r-a-p-h-y. A good stress test for baseline consistency. Do any letters look like they're sitting higher or lower than the others?
noon: all curved letters with consistent shapes. If "noon" looks uneven, your o or n spacing needs work.
minimum: a classic spacing test in type design. The repeated m, i, and n shapes expose spacing inconsistencies very clearly.
Run through these test words. Once you see the problem clearly, you'll know which of the three fixes to apply.
Quick-Fix Checklist
| Symptom | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| All letters too close everywhere | Space Before/After too low | Increase Space Before and Space After on most characters |
| All letters too far apart everywhere | Space Before/After too high | Reduce Space Before and Space After on most characters |
| Specific letter pairs look wrong | Pair spacing | Adjust Space After of the first letter or Space Before of the second |
| Certain letters look higher or lower | Baseline issue | Use Vertical Alignment slider in Refine |
| Text looks uneven but you can't pinpoint it | Combination | Start with overall spacing, then address specific pairs |
The Iteration Loop
Fixing font spacing is iterative. You adjust, rebuild, look, adjust again. This is completely normal. Even professional type designers go through many rounds of spacing refinement.
In FontCraft, the build is fast. The typical loop is: adjust in Refine, rebuild (a few seconds), preview, adjust again. Most fonts need 2–4 rounds before they feel right.
The goal isn't perfection. It's reaching a point where a reader doesn't notice anything unusual. Good spacing is invisible.
The test words for quick reference: AVATAR, Waterfall, Typography, noon, minimum. Open your font preview and start there.
Start your FontCraft free account and use the Refine page to get your font feeling right.