Test Kerning Pairs in Microsoft Word the Fast Way

[Erwin Denissen]

The Test Font dialog uses a standard Window text control, that unfortunately doesn't support kerning.

However there is a nice trick that allows you to easily test your font within another application like Microsoft Word. While the Test Window is visible you can select the font in other software as well. Usually it has a name like FC Test Font 012345. When you use the Test Window again you'll have to change the font's name in Word, because the name always changes (for example FC Test Font 66493). So within FontCreator press F5, then go to Microsoft Word and press CTRL + A, then select the current font.

By default kerning is not enabled in Microsoft Word. To enable kerning in Word, first select the text you want to kern. Then select Font from the Format menu and select the Character Spacing tab. There you can turn on kerning by checking the kerning for fonts field.

Note: Kerning in Symbol fonts won't be used in Microsoft Word.

[William]

Thank you for suggesting this method.

I have used it for testing that the LW kerning pair added to my Kern Deco font was working using the Serif PagePlus 10 desktop publishing package before I finally saved the font.

I have now found that the method is also useful for other purposes.

I am trying out the FontCreator 5.6 beta test software and decided to try adding some accented characters using composites to my Sonnet to a Renaissance Lady font. Previously in my fonts I have used non-composite glyphs for accented characters, so this is something new for me. I have found that I can use the method suggested in this thread to test the accented characters as I go along by using the Insert Symbol Other... facility of PagePlus 10, which gives access to the whole character map. This is indeed a useful facility.

Also, as some readers may know, I like to add various ligature glyphs into some of my fonts, mapped into the Unicode Private Use Area. I have now found that using the method suggested in this thread that the Insert Symbol Other... facility of PagePlus 10 can be used to test the ligature glyphs in use easily without needing to key the character code point number in order to display a ligature glyph. Adding ligature glyphs into the Unicode Private Use Area is regarded as somewhat controversial by some people, yet it does allow the production of output with some non-OpenType-aware software packages.

Please note that PagePlus 10 is not the latest available version of PagePlus, it just happens to be the one that I am using at present.

William Overington

16 July 2007